Unsterblich
by cgal120
Summary: Taking a gap year trip to Germany sounded fun at first, but when American university student Amelia Jones finds herself in the mysterious village of Königsberg surrounded by secretive locals, curious co-guests at the local inn and the knowledge of dire secrets linking to the grand old castle nearby, Amelia and her new friends will need all the help they can get. Nyotalia. UKxFem!US
1. Prologue

_**Unsterblich**_

_**Prologue**_

**1746**

Battle had been raging across three continents for 5 years, a large battle that was creating much bloodshed throughout the many countries involved all involved for different purposes. The Kingdom of Prussia, mysterious but defiant, called out against the councils of Austria – opposed to the coronation of Maria Theresa. It was a simple pretext for war – proclaiming that the young woman couldn't simple inherit the throne from her father, Charles VI, as Salic law precluded royal inheritance by a woman.

This however was simply convenient excuse put forward by Prussia, and backed by the Kingdom of France, to challenge the power held by Habsburg. War was declared and soon the people of Austria were looking for strong allies to help them defend their lands – finding such allies in the armies of Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and many more.

However, the Kingdoms of Prussia and France were ahead of their opponents, enlisting the help of the Kingdom of Spain, Bavaria, Saxony and others. Their armies almost doubled numbers put forward by Austria and its allies, adding much pressure to Maria Theresa as the wars raged on and innocent lives were lost all for the greed of other countrymen.

Things took a turn in their favour however when word was sent over to the people of Hungary for assistance – which was quickly and gladly accepted. One battle was won for the side of Austria, but Silesia was still lost to the Prussian armies.

Knowing that they were finally coming across some true challenges from the Austrian allies, the councils of Prussia turned their attentions to darker methods in order to keep themselves ahead of the game. Unfortunately, this entailed gathering the help of one of the wealthiest yet secluded individuals in the kingdom.

Baron Gilbert Belischmidt resided in Castle Königsberg, a large and mysterious castle located in the foggy hills of Königsberg. The castle over looked the foggy hills and forests that surrounded the tiny hillside village that lay just beyond the grounds of the castle – everything visible from the dark windows. The Baron lived with the many staff members that walked the halls of the grand bastion but the one person that he cared for the most was his young son, Lukas. He had long since lost his wife, the mother of his child who had died in childbirth bringing their son into the world – but unlike some father's in the area who dismissed their sons or daughters as the reason for their loves to be gone, he cherished the boy.

Gilbert was a renowned alchemist and scientist, knowing things about the world that would have been dismissed by the church if someone with as much power as he held had not shown them its capability when combined with the beliefs that they had all been taught since birth.

After receiving a letter from the head of state, Gilbert sat alone in his study – reading and rereading the entire quickly scribbled scrawl that had been presented to him. He was being asked to create a potion that would give the soldiers of Prussia, France and Spain the capability of doing great things and be able to hold off the attacks from the Austrian's and their allies when they came to try and reclaim the lands that had been taken from them.

_You will be aided if you wish_, the rushed words said, _we will provide helpers from the allies of our kingdom. They know of the power that you can wield – they too have acclaimed scientists from their own kingdoms who are willing to help us. Though one is rather questionable, I see no reason in not letting them help._

"Questionable?" Gilbert muttered to himself, running his pale fingers through white blonde hair. He continued to read through the letter and sighed to himself, a smirk spreading across his lips. Already had he been starting to create a potion of such magnitude – and here were the richest people in his country begging him to continue, offering funding and help. Oh how little they truly knew of what he got up to in the laboratory of the castle, but that was nothing for them to really be concerned with.

All that mattered was he was being handed the entire fate of the world on a plate and who was he to just turn down such a temptation as that?

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

3 days after the response from the Baron had been received by the nobles, a French scholar walked up the gravelled pathway from the village that led up to the great castle. His long blonde hair was tied back with a blue ribbon, a coat wrapped tightly around him as he looked around with nerves at the forest on either side of him.

He was questioning why the people of the village did not want to help him make his way up to the building his shadow was cast over them, though he could tell that there was a feeling of unease around it. Looking at his feet, the Frenchman stepped carefully around a deep puddle in the path – his body was starting to shiver as the cold mist dampened his clothes and hair, making the atmosphere just that little bit eerier.

Placing a gloved hand on the wrought iron gate, the French scholar pushed it open – the whole frame screaming with protest. The sound shook him right into his core for some reason, the man getting the odd feeling that it was not the first time something had sounded like that on the grounds of this castle. He pushed the gate back into its original position, turning his attention back to the large path that still laid ahead of him as he made his way ever closer to his destination. Thankfully though, a carriage was heading his direction. Stepping aside as it reached him and turned around, he looked up at the driver as he gazed down at him.

"Francis Bonnefoy?"

"Oui, that would me moi," replied the Frenchman, blue eyes scanning the man's wore scarred face.

"The Baron saw you coming through the window of his study and requested I come get you," the man continued. "Please, get in."

"Merci," said Francis, getting into the dark carriage. He held onto his seat as the driver whipped the horses into moving causing the carriage to jolt. He peered out of the window beside him, looking at the grounds they past whilst traversing towards the main entrance – Francis could see an large old tree nearby with an odd rope swing dangling from one of the large looming branches, leading him to the conclusion that this man must have a child living with him. Francis knew not much of the man he had been ordered to go work with, only that he was a brilliant mind in the lines of science and alchemy.

The carriage driver pulled to a stop just short of the steps up to the castles main entrance, tapping on the roof in a motion for Francis to take his stuff out and make his way up to the front door. Doing as he was told, the Frenchman looked around at the ostentatious surroundings he had now found himself in.

"Merde…" he whispered to himself, taking in the majestic fountain in the courtyard and even the design on the large, solid front doors. Walking up the stone steps, Francis rapped his knuckles against the aging wood and listened as it echoed on the inside. He was kept waiting for only 2 minutes longer before the doors were pulled open with long, drawn-out creaks, almost like the wood was warning him to flee. A small man stood before him dressed in a sharp suit with white gloves, a neutral expression on his aged face.

"You must be Monsieur Bonnefoy, nein?" asked the man whom Francis assumed must be the Baron's butler.

"Oui, but please call me Francis," he replied, stepping into the castle when he was motioned to.

"My name is Hans," the butler replied. "It is a pleasure to meet you. If you would please come this way, the master has instructed you and our other guest to meet in the lounge."

"Okay," Francis said, waiting for Hans to shut the door behind him before following his lead up a large stair case, along a corridor and towards an open atrium. "This castle is highly impressive," Francis observed, holding onto a banister as he walked up the stone steps in the atrium towards the inner quarters of the castle where the lounge was located.

"The master will be most pleased to hear you said that," Hans replied, stepping aside and allowing Francis to walk into the lounge. "Please, help yourself to the drinks in the cabinet there, sir. The master will be along shortly."

Nodding, Francis watched as the elderly gentleman walked out of the lounge and turned to look around the room with equal impress as the rest. It was a much warmer, welcoming room than the others he had seen as they had walked through the castle. Not feeling particularly in the mood for a drink just yet, the French scholar set his bag down on the floor and sat himself down in one of the comfortable sofas in the room which faced the roaring fireplace. Above the mantle was a large portrait of whom Francis assumed to be the Baron Gilbert and his young son. Francis wasn't expecting the Baron to be quite as young as he was – assuming his help would be going towards some elderly man who couldn't lift much. This man however looked to be around his age, a mere 26 years but with a lot of power it would seem. The boy looked only 3 however.

"Monsieur Bonnefoy, what an honour it is to meet such a prestige scientist as yourself."

Looking around from his seat, the Frenchman looked to see the very same man from the portrait walking into the room with a light smirk on his face and eyes redder than any rich wine. Standing, he held his hand out for the Baron to shake.

"Oui, as it is a pleasure to meet you as well, Baron Belischmidt," Francis replied, shaking the Prussian's hand before sitting down with him. "I was just admiring your painting."

"Danke," Gilbert said, looking up at the picture. "That is myself and my son, Lukas. His mother past away during childbirth so I've been raising him with the help of the nursemaid…"

"How old is your son?"

"Almost 4 years old."

"Sirs, Mrs Carriedo has arrived."

Blinking, the two men stood up and looked around at Hans voice; their eyes settling on the beautiful woman who had just entered the room. Her face was soft and kind, her skin tone tanned and suited to the red dress she wore. Her brown hair was tied up in a bun, curly strands hanging down to frame her face and create more prominence of her green eyes.

"Guten tag, Mrs Carriedo," said Gilbert, stepping forwards to lead her to a chair. "Forgive me, but I was not expecting-"

"Not expecting your second helper to be a woman?" stated the woman, looking up at the two men as they took their seats once more. "No need to be sorry, I get that kind of reaction all the time. A woman isn't meant to be as knowledgeable as I, but we are entering a new era are we not? You are fighting a woman with man's tactics – sometimes the best form of attack is to fight fire with fire, no?"

"I suppose," Gilbert said. He took a moment to compose himself before looking between his new partners. "So, I assume you have been told of our task?"

"To create a potion to create great strength to the soldiers of our countries," Francis said, nodding his head. "I am Francis Bonnefoy, by the way," he added, leaning round to shake the Spaniard's hand.

"Ava Carriedo," replied the newcomer, smiling. "I want this to be over with as soon as possible. I have left my son with my husband and would like to return to him. I cannot however because of the orders from our leaders."

"We better get to work then," Gilbert said.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

2 months past and it seemed to the two foreign scientists that not much progress was being made on the potion. Days went by when they were told to not enter the laboratory, sharp looks given to them by staff if they were to try and enter the basement door which led down into the lower sections of the castle.

They had been given strict orders to never go to the store room, never to enter the basement and never to go to the laboratory alone.

Ava was becoming troubled by the events happening in and around the castle and village, not liking the stories that she could hear some days when she travelled into town. People were going missing from their homes in the dead of night, never to be seen again – but it had started almost 3 years before she had even travelled to Königsberg. It distressed her more so when the castle was mentioned, the stories she heard about the Baron disturbing to say the least.

Looking around from the window seat she was perched upon, the woman smiled as the young son of the Baron ran into the room and climbed to sit with her.

"¡Hola, Lukas," Ava said, helping the boy onto the seat. "How are you today?"

"Sehr gut, Fräulein!" smiled the little boy. The smile faulted after a moment though. "I heard something Papa said the other day…"

"What is that, dear?"

"He's lied to you all…" Lukas said, looking around to make sure they weren't being listened to. "He's not working on a potion for the soldiers! He wants it all for himself to bring Mama back and make us live forever…!"

Ava blinked and looked at the boy. "Are you sure?"

"Ja! I heard it all myself!" Lukas said, nodding furiously. "He took Monsieur Bonnefoy to the basement earlier while you were out! He's not come back but Papa did! People go down there sometimes and never come back! And I hear weird noises sometimes – like screams and growls… I've never gone there though… It's scary down there…"

"It is pretty scary down there…" Ava said, glancing around when she heard footsteps. "Go to your room and play, okay, Lukas? And stay there until I come back."

"Okay…"

After making sure that the boy had done as he was told, Ava walked through the many corridors in the castle – trying to find any sign of Gilbert or Francis. She was unsuccessful for some time, getting to the point where she was simply going to give up; until she heard talking in the library.

Pausing by the door and pressing herself out of sight, Ava stayed silent and listened to the two men talking inside – Gilbert and Hans – both seeming to have a tense edge to their tones.

"People are growing suspicious, my Lord," Hans said. "Those creatures are leaving more destruction than we can cover up…"

"I know, I know!" Gilbert replied. "I've come so close… I have one more ingredient left – one I knew for certain will work to create the unsterblich potion… Then there will be no stopping me."

"What of that Spaniard girl though?" Hans said. "She's getting suspicious too. As was Francis!"

"Then we shall deal with her in the same way we dealt with Francis, shall we not?" Gilbert replied.

"That is a fate worse than death, sir…"

"Maria was taken from me, left me and son alone, that, sir, is a fate worse than death," snapped Gilbert. "Now go ready lunch… We need to keep up appearances…"

With wide eyes, Ava silently ducked into the nearest store cupboard she could find; shutting herself inside and listening as footsteps passed in either direction – one set heading to the study whilst the other went to the kitchens. With a shaky breath, Ava carefully opened the door and looked into the corridor.

Gilbert had lied to them… He had betrayed them and their countries… He was…

What was he planning?

Ava knew in an instant where she was to go next, and she wasn't happy about it at all. Looking around her, she found a lantern and some oil stored away in a box in the cupboard; getting it sorted before heading downstairs quietly. Sneaking through the atrium, she made her way passed the staff and got into the door labelled _Keller_, making her way down the creaky wooden staircase as quietly as she could; descending into darkness.

Her feet met cool stone, the lantern being her main source of light as most of the candles on the walls were blown out. She listened as the clack of her shoes echoed through the narrow hallway, looking around carefully – lifting and lowering the lantern in accordance to where she needed to see. Finally she reached the cross-section of the area – 3 doors: one that lead into the laboratory, one that lead to the sealed off section, and one that lead into storage.

Heading over to the laboratory, Ava opened the door and peaked inside; walking in completely when she was sure it was safe. She looked around at the phials that were lined up on the shelves, all different concoctions they'd created that were effective but not what they were looking for.

Sanity potion, Laudanum…

But then she noticed it. Right on the desk. A new phial with a new ingredient sat next to it. A note lay on the table before it with the word _unsterblich_ written on it, and Ava knew that this was what she was looking for. Quickly, she grabbed the items and turned – looking at the container in the corner which held a vast amount of acid they had been working with. Removing the lid, she dumped the items inside and watched them fizzle away into nothing.

"No one betrays me and gets away with it," she muttered, heading out of the door and shutting it behind her. Taking a deep breath, she looked towards the sealed off quarters; Francis wasn't in the lab and there would be no need for him to be in the storage so it seemed reasonable to assume he was in those sections – Gilbert had said he'd been dealt with…

Walking over to the door, the Spaniard took hold of the door handle and gently pulled it open, stepping into near total darkness.

"Francis?" she said, walking along the hallways. She paused when she heard a low growl, looking around the area she'd just stepped into and realising that she was in a dungeon. "Oh my…"

Her path split two ways: further cells or a series of peculiar rooms – all of which had the most putrid smells drifting from them. Choosing the rooms first, Ava walked along and looked inside gasping at the sight of many dead bodies in each, some still attached to devices of torture.

Turning around, she started to walk towards the cells but started as she heard another growl.

"Who's there?" she called out, jumping back as something started to pound against a cell door. Frozen in fear, Ava watched as whatever it was continued to pound and pound until the door simply fell off its hinges with a loud clatter of metal onto stone. With a gasp, Ava started to back away as a creature – seemingly once human – walked out of the cell. With one human hand and one so much larger with talon-like claws, an elongated jaw and two piercing blue eyes, Ava knew exactly where Francis had gone.

Wasting no time, Ava turned and ran away from the creature that had once been her friend not wanting to have the same fate as him. She had no idea what had happened to the Frenchman, but clearly he had been subjugated to some extreme torture unsuited to the bodies of man. Getting to the door to the cross-section, Ava slammed it shut and barricaded it with nearby boxes and barrels before heading back upstairs and pulling that door shut too.

That castle wasn't safe. With the amount of bodies down there, there were surely going to be more than just that one monster. Ava panted as she pressed herself to the door, trying to regain her composure before heading up the stairs once more and straight to Lukas' room. The little boy looked around at her in surprise when she went in, his eyes widening a little at the panic she seemed to be in.

"Ava?"

"Lukas, please… run," she said, kneeling in front of him. "This place isn't safe. Leave. Run to the village and go to the inn. Don't look back."

"Okay," Lukas said, getting to his feet. Ava stood too, walking through the halls with him and leading him to the front door. Looking around to make sure it was safe, she pulled it open and watched as the boy started to flee across grounds. She was worried about the gate for a moment, but the boy was a small 3-year-old – he could easily slip between those bars.

Shutting the door quickly, Ava turned around and gasped as she came face to face with Gilbert; clutching her chest as her heart started to race.

"You seem startled, Ava," the man said.

"You were right behind me, of course I'm startled," she responded.

"What were you doing with Lukas?"

"He wanted to go out and play," Ava lied.

Gilbert looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Come with me," he said. "I need to show you something."

"Um, not at the moment, Gilbert," Ava said. "I have something I need to do…"

"Something like… flee?"

Blinking, Ava looked up into Gilbert's blood red eyes and gasped as she felt something sharp pierce through the skin above her stomach. Looking down, she panted and choked a little at the knife pressed into her stomach. As Gilbert pulled it out she collapsed against him, unable to do anything for the pain as he carried her to the area she wanted so badly to escape from.

Ava panicked as she saw the door wide open and the boxes littering the floor, Gilbert pausing to look at the sight too before continuing into the lab. Scared, Ava wondered just where Francis had gone too but was soon distracted as she dumped onto the floor in the lab. Looking at the table, Gilbert stared at the spot where his potion had once sat before turning to Ava.

"You…"

Smirking weakly, Ava pointed to the acid. "Lo siento, Gilbert," she chuckled, hearing the monster making it's way closer to the lab finally. "Looks like immortality is just out of reach."

"Bitch!" Gilbert snapped, looking at the ingredients all around him and scrambling to get them together once more. Ava watched, laying still as the monster walked past her into the room. "No…" Gilbert said, shouting out as the monster charged at him.

As the ingredients fell from his hands, Gilbert was thrown against the vat of acid – just managing to get out of the way as it tipped and set an open flame from a candle on the table crashing against the mess on the floor. A bright white light hit Ava's dimming vision, Gilbert's screams echoing out as the monster walked away.

As she faded to black, she knew there and then things in that castle were only going to get worse…

_**Notes:**_

**Happy Halloween everyone!**

**I thought that tonight would be the perfect start for my new series! Don't worry, In The Shadows will be completed, All of Time and Space is on hiatus, Reputation and The Aftermath is Secondary will also continue. But today I wanted to start an idea that's been bugging me for months.**

**As you may or may not be aware, this is based around the video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Now, they have a feature where you create custom stories for it and I am no good and making games so I am writing it instead :D**

**Also, Königsberg was/is a real place. It was the capital city of East Prussia until Berlin took over. But in this case, I have made it a totally fictional place. Call it creative licence.**

**Oh, those BTT, always up to crazy shit. Though I'm thinking Gil needs to chill out!**

**I'm creating a WordPress blog too for all my stories so hopefully that'll work so if all else fails with this site then things will go there and DeviantArt.**

**Look out for the next chapter soon! More Nyotalia! Fem!America ftw! **


	2. Chapter 1

_**Unsterblich**_

_**Chapter One**_

Her hands were tapping on her thighs to a fast beat, the sounds of ACDC blaring through the speakers of the bright green headphones in her ears. The volume was fairly loud, but then again with music like that the louder you played it the better it sounded. Amelia Jones smiled as she watched the world – almost as green as her headphones – flew passed her blue eyes, glancing at the iPod on her lap to keep a judge on the time. She was used to travelling by now but this was an entirely different experience to anything she had ever encountered before – she was on her own for the first time, and she had to admit that she was just a little bit nervous.

Amelia had originally lived in the American state of California. Whenever she told that fact to anyone they all initially asked what Hollywood was like and if she ever saw any stars. It had annoyed her at first, but as she grew up she learnt to laugh off the ignorance people had towards her home land. No, Amelia did not come from Los Angeles – she in fact came from the just as picturesque city of San Francisco. She had lived there with her mother, Eleanor; her father, George; and her older brother, Matthew. Life in San Francisco was great for the family at first; the siblings were getting on alright in school – both always talking about the friends they had made, though Amelia seemed to attract more attention that Matthew with her bright, infectious smile and bubbly personality. Eleanor was a nurse in the local hospital – meaning that she had to work random and often exceptionally long hours. George, however, was a freelance graphics designer so he was able to stay home for the children when Eleanor had to go to work. It was an arrangement that they were both fine with as both got to enter the careers that they had dreamt of.

However, in the autumn the same year that Matthew turned 10 and Amelia turned 9, a large accident happened in the city – a broken brake on a tram causing the biggest pile up the city had seen for many years. The Halloween of 2002 was one that they would never forget. So many people were hurt in the accident, hundreds of people in smashed up cars and crushed by the tram, putting a strain on the hospitals in the area including the one where Eleanor worked. She was told to stay in longer to help with the aftermath of the crash, to help the patients that were coming in thick and fast in need of care. She had told her husband of what was going on, warning him to not take the children out trick or treating that evening as the chaos that had been caused was paramount across the city.

This left her alone though.

When the time came for her shift to finally end, it was much past midnight and she knew that George would never leave the children alone at that time of night in a city like that. They lived near the beach, in a beautiful old home with many rooms and space enough for the children to run around and play. It was a 10 minute drive from the hospital and a 30 minute walk. Half an hour didn't seem that much to her; she'd walked it plenty of times alone by herself. What harm would one more do?

She'd walked and walked, getting closer to her home with every footstep. However, she was startled at one point by a teenager running past her with a skeleton mask on screaming and flailing his arms. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and continued to walk on – until someone stepped out of the shadows into her path.

Eleanor Williams-Jones was found butchered on the beach the next morning by a passing jogger. Her killer was never found.

After the death of his wife, George uprooted his family from their home, the city, the state and eventually the whole country. He moved them to England, taking up a job in a graphics company in London to try and pay for the care that his children needed. They had to start over, the ashes of their mother in a small urn on highest shelf in their apartment.

When he turned 18, Matthew ended up moving away from home. He wasn't in college anymore but had secured a place at a decent university on the other side of the city – leaving Amelia alone at home to deal with the manic depressive father. She knew that he was able to hide his agony at work so that he could create all his wonderful designs, but when he got home all of his woes poured out into the walls of the apartment. He drank, smoke; did things that would slowly kill himself – keeping his promise to his wife to take care of the kids for as long as he could but doing as he wanted in killing himself to join her one day. He never lashed out, he never shouted, he never cried – he simply drank himself into a stupor and stared into space.

Amelia kept a lot of secrets for her family – her father's problems being the first and greatest, but then her brother caused her trouble. Matthew's roommate, a boy from the Netherland's had a bad influence on him – Amelia caught them smoking weed when she had gone to visit him one day. He'd begged her not to tell, and as his younger sister she agreed not to – only if he'd stop. As far as she had been aware he had.

With heavy heart she left her home when she too turned 18, moving to a different university in the city – an impressive one for someone coming from her troubled background. Her grades were A*s all round and with how well she applied herself through school and college, university was passing along just as quickly.

However, with constant messages and visits from her father and the worries of whether her brother too was trying to kill himself, Amelia came to the summer of her first year and decided to take a gap year in which to relax herself and get away from it all.

So that was why she was sat on an almost empty coach with a great big backpack travelling through the unseen areas of Germany alone.

Readjusting the pale-pink-and-white beanie on her short, wavy blonde hair, Amelia put her iPod back into her backpack which was lying haphazardly across the seat beside her. She jilted slightly as the coach travelled over a pothole but managed to keep from bumping her head on the seat in front of her.

Looking up, she watched as the coach pulled to a stop next to a trek path so unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of her seat; walking to the front of the coach and grinning at the driver.

"Thanks for the ride," she smiled, keeping smile even when the grumpy old man looked at her with contempt. Turning away from him, Amelia walked down the steps of the coach with her backpack securely where it should be – jumping the final step before taking in a deep breath of the crisp fresh air. "Cool."

It was the 31st of October 2012, exactly 10 years to the day that Eleanor had been murdered – but Amelia wasn't thinking about the murder as she looked around the bright green forest before her. No, she was thinking about how her mother had always told her to follow her instincts and to see the world. This was definitely a start.

Beginning her walk up the path, Amelia looked around her as she travelled by foot, staying as quiet as she could to listen to every little thing that was going on around her. She could hear the gravel beneath her walking boots crunching against each other with that brilliant scraping sound that only dirt could make, birds wings fluttering as they flew away from the trees that they had been perching upon. Amelia was in awe of the environment she was walking through, even the eerie mist that was pooling around her simply adding to the mystery that seemed to be help by this place. Green and yellowing moss was growing on the tops of large stones that were littered in random positions along the path and into the woods, probably from years of age and elemental abuse. Even from where she was, Amelia could see a variety of structures dotted around the hills near and far as she got closer to where it was she was supposed to be going – and the most impressive by far was the large looming castle on the eastern side.

"Awesome…" she whispered to herself as she stepped into a small yet quaint village. There wasn't really a proper paving system within this village, but you could see from the generally positioning of the cottages and businesses that it was a very homely environment. A few kids were playing in the square nearby her, all laughing and enjoying themselves. They smiled and waved to her when she walked by, Amelia grinning as she waved back.

"Guten tag," greeted many people as she continued her journey towards the inn she would be staying in. "Willkommen in Königsberg."

"Danke," Amelia smiled in return, walking up to the front door of the inn and opening it. A bell tinkled above her, drawing the attention of two people – a young man and woman no older than herself – talking behind the nearby wooden counter. The man, tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, seemed to inwardly sigh and start rummaging through a cabinet bellow the desk to get a book out. The woman, with curly auburn hair with a peculiar singular curl sticking out to the side, and amber eyes, smiled at Amelia though and hurried out from behind the counter to greet her.

"Benvenuti!" she grinned, a heavy Italian accent showing through. "Welcome to the Gasthaus Königsberg! My name is Feliciana Vargas and this is my boyfriend, the owner of this lovely place, Ludwig Beilschmidt! What's your name?"

"My name's Amelia Jones," the American smiled, very happy that there was someone else with as much energy she could have – and such a nice girl – to talk to too. "I should have a room booked for a week or two?"

"Ja, I found your name," Ludwig said, nodding his head. "Just sign in the register here and I'll get you your key."

Nodding, Amelia walked with Feliciana over to the counter and started to sign in when the bell tinkled again causing them all to look round. A tall boy a little older than Ludwig with brown curly hair and green eyes was now setting a couple of suitcases down on the floor, beside him a shorter girl with wavy brown hair with an opposing curl to Feliciana's, and olive eyes, stood with folded arms.

"SORELLA YOU MADE IT!" cried Feliciana, running over to the other girl and tackling her in her tight hug. The girl yelped and held onto her sister, chuckling a little.

"Feli, not so tight!"

"She just missed you, Lovina," said the tall boy. It took him a moment but he soon realised Amelia's presence so smiled at her and nodded his head a little. "¡Hola! My name's Antonio Carriedo and this is my girlfriend Lovina Vargas. What's your name?"

"I'm Amelia Jones," she replied, smiling to the Spaniard. "You'll be staying here too then?"

"Sí," Antonio smiled. "Feliciana is Lovina's little sister though they strangely have the same birthday…"

"We don't get to see each other often because we live in different countries," Feliciana smiled, still hugging Lovina who seemed to have resigned herself to her fate. "So, it's nice to visit each other every once in a while!"

"You two still need to sign in too," Ludwig said after handing Amelia her key. She thanked him and stepped aside as Antonio went to the counter and did all he needed to do, the American watching as the door opened one more time. She blinked slightly at the sight of a man no older than 22 years old with messy blonde hair, green eyes and the largest eyebrows she'd ever seen. He looked around the entrance way curiously, seeming to be fairly surprised by the volume of people he found.

"Uh, hello," he said, an English accent – London perhaps or possibly further south, Amelia couldn't tell. "My name's Arthur Kirkland, I booked a room for a couple of weeks?"

"Ah, yes, Mr Kirkland, I have your key ready, you just have to sign the register once Antonio is finished," Ludwig said. Arthur nodded and walked over to the counter once Antonio returned to his bags with his and Lovina's key and signed in himself. She didn't know why she was still stood in the entrance way, but Amelia watched Arthur writing in the register so carefully with curiosity – there was just something about him that made him seem very mysterious to her. Though she looked away quickly when he glanced her way with a slight smile on his face.

"Well, Arthur is the last guest we were expecting," Feliciana smiled happily. "So because it's only the six of us, I thought I would cook us all a nice big supper for your first night here."

"That sounds lovely," Amelia smiled.

"Splendid," Arthur said, smiling at Feliciana after taking his key.

"It should be ready in an hour," she smiled. "So go to your rooms and relax until I ring the bell, okay?"

With instructions given and bags in hand, the guests nodded to their hosts and headed towards their rooms. Amelia was very conscious of Arthur walking nearby her and of Antonio and Lovina cutting off into a different part of the inn. She glanced up at him, noticing that he was just a few inches taller than her. A deep blush formed on her face when he looked back at her, a charming smile forming on his face.

"What's your name then, Miss, I don't believe we were acquainted," he said.

"Oh! I'm Amelia," she said. "Amelia Jones."

"You have a fairly strong American accent," Arthur observed. "Which state are you from?"

"Originally I was from California," Amelia said. "But when my mother died my father moved my older brother and I to London."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Arthur said, meaning her mother's death. "San Francisco?"

"You're the first one to ever guess that right on the first try."

"Los Angeles is too stereotypical," Arthur chuckled. "I like to think outside the box and I rarely hear about someone coming from San Francisco…"

Amelia smiled and glanced to her right at the door she was stood by. _31_, the same number that was attached to her key. "Well, here's my stop," she chuckled. "See you at dinner?"

"See you then, Amelia," Arthur said, continuing down the hall to his own room. Amelia inwardly giggled to herself, turning to hide her red cheeks as she put the key in the lock and let herself into her room. There was a switch on the wall beside the door, so she flicked it on before she entered any further into the dark room and waited for the light bulb to brighten. She smiled at her small yet spacious room, the fairly large single bed a little way away from the door opposite a window which was framed by the most beautiful red curtains that she had ever seen before. She had all the mod cons she could need, so went to have a shower to clean away the stale stench left on her lightly tanned skin from the coach ride. Once she was finished washing, she got out of the shower and dried herself off before entering her room and taking out some of the nice clothes she'd packed for her trip – a light red blouse, some dark skinny jeans and black dolly shoes (she'd never really been one for heals, she had them but when travelling flats were best).

She sat herself at the vanity table that had been provided for her and started to dry her hair, pinning back her fringe with a little red hair clip whilst watching as her usual strand of stubborn hair poked up proudly. She had managed to hide it with her beanie before but she had to admit that it was rather cute.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

An hour soon passed and Amelia made her way down from her room to the dining room where she was shown to her seat by Ludwig – opposite Arthur. A table had been set out especially to accommodate the six of them dining that evening – the three men on one side, the woman opposite who should be their significant others. Amelia didn't mind sitting opposite Arthur, she just hoped he didn't.

Once the meal began and the group was happily eating away, the conversations started to turn to what everyone did so as to catch the sister's up on their life changes and for the new comers to learn more.

"Well, I'm a model now," Lovina smiled, sipping her soup from her carefully. "I'm not a big name or anything yet – I just model clothes for magazines and catalogues but it's a start."

"I'm her photographer," Antonio said, smiling proudly. "That's actually where we met. She had to wear these insanely high heals-"

"-pumps."

"Right, pumps… But she twisted wrong and fell over. I caught her before she hurt herself though."

"Awww, that's so sweet," Amelia and Feliciana cooed together. Lovina rolled her eyes but chuckled a little.

"What about you Amelia, what do you do?" the older Italian asked.

"Oh, well, I'm studying Criminology and Behavioural Science at University in London," Amelia said, a little self-conscious.

"Oh, how long have you been there then?" Feliciana asked.

"Well, I moved to London when I was 9 years old because my mother died and Dad couldn't really cope…" Amelia said. "But I've been in University for a year now and decided to take a gap year to wind down before my final 2 years."

"So what do you want to be when you graduate?" asked Antonio.

"I'm not really sure…" Amelia said. "A detective maybe…? Just someone who stops bad things happening to people. You see… my Mom was killed this night 10 years ago… Butchered and dumped on the beach near my old house… The guy was never caught though. I don't want any other kids to lose their moms to someone like that…"

"That's a very noble sentiment," Arthur said, sipping his drink. "I may be speaking out of term but I think she'd be very proud of you."

Amelia blinked and blushed a little, but smiled. "I… Thanks, Arthur," she said, really unsure as to what to say to him. "What do you do?"

"Well, I graduated university myself recently but last year I had a book published and it was pretty successful," Arthur said. "It was a mystery-fantasy story set in Australia – I have a cousin there who shared all the legends he knew to me. It was a best seller too."

"That's why you're so familiar to me!" Amelia grinned. "I have that book, it's awesome!"

Arthur looked surprised for a moment but then chuckled. "I'm glad it pleased you," he smiled. "I'm actually here working on a new story. It's based around the folklore that has spread about that gloomy old castle on the hill."

"That castle belongs to my family," Ludwig said, looking to Arthur. "It's an old wreck now, hardly worth anything. It's been falling to pieces for centuries… so it's cheaper for my family to just let it crumble itself…"

Arthur's eyebrows raised as he looked to the younger German man. "So you would know about the stories then?"

"Ja, I was born and raised here in this village," Ludwig replied. "Would you like me to share?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

Ludwig nodded and looked in thought for a moment before taking a sip of the beer he had. "It was during the war of the Austrian Succession that the castle was at its highest power, my ancestor being the Baron who ruled over this village… But something happened in the castle which no one has ever found out – he and his two foreign colleagues vanishing without a trace.

"Only the Baron's son Lukas managed to escaped, hence why our family line has continued so far. But they say that moans come from the castle, horrible screams in the dead of night… And once every two months people go missing from the village. No one questions it though… They've looked and looked but they're never found again… Something takes them in the night, and the villagers say they're taken to the castle. But by who, no one knows."

"That's really spooky," Amelia said, shuddering a little. She looked at Arthur who had been listening carefully, spotting a small hint of worry in his eyes.

Once they had all finished their meals, Feliciana and Ludwig took the plates and utensils to be washed whilst their guests made their ways back to their rooms.

"Hey, Arthur?" asked Amelia as she stopped outside her room.

"Yes?" replied the Briton, looking down at the girl.

"What do you suppose is taking the people?"

"It's just a ghost story, don't wory…"

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

A loud crash caused Amelia to jerk awake. She rubbed her eyes quickly and looked at the clock beside her bed – _00:00_. It was midnight, so what was causing all the noise outside her room. She got out of bed – only in a dark blue t-shirt and light blue pyjama bottoms – and snuck over by her door to listen through the lock.

It sounded as if the inn was being raided; crashing sounds and clatters being heard in random areas of the building. Her blood started to run cold as she registered the screaming that had begun, recognising Feliciana's voice being drowned out as she seemed to pass out. Curiosity getting the better of her, Amelia carefully opened her door a little and peaked through the crack – she couldn't see Feliciana but she could clearly see an unconscious Ludwig being dragged out of the building.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute, her breathing coming out in deep pants. She had never been more scared in all of her life but these people were in trouble.

But then she heard a growl above her.

Looking up, Amelia's eyes widened as she saw a pair of beady black eyes staring down at her. It was a creature like nothing she had ever seen before – no hair, just a long wide open jaw, it's limbs mitch matched (one human-like hand, one large mass with claws), spikes keeping parts in place and blood staining the rags it wore.

It slammed the door open, hitting Amelia in the head and causing her to fly backwards and hit the floor hard. She screamed loudly as the creature charged at her.

Then everything went black.

_**Notes:**_

**Le spoooooooookkkyyyyyy~**

**Welcome to the first real chapter of Unsterblich! Prologues are nice but there's nothing quite like the real thing, eh?**

**Okay, location location location! SAN FRAN! Yes, I have been to San Francisco. My rendition is fictitious, friends. I made up a tram crash, I made up random nearby hospital, just as I made a fictitious Königsberg.**

**Poor old, Amie, right? Loses her mum, her dad's an alchy and her brother's a pothead! Well, we all knew Matt's a drug addict so… *backs away* FICTION PEOPLE!**

**Antonio and Lovina's careers can be blamed on Tabaotsi because of her fashionista!Fem!Romano blog :D I saw that and the universe just stuck with me :D So if you like that go thank her and look at the stuff she's drawn *loves the Dr Who one*.**

**I hope you will look forward to more now I've left it on such a cliffhanger already! **


	3. Chapter 2

_**Unsterblich**_

_**Chapter Two**_

With a groan, Amelia slowly opened her eyes – bringing her right hand to her head to feel a tender bruise on her temple. She made a pained noise and closed her eyes quickly as a sharp sensation rocketed through her skull like a sudden migraine, so she flopped back again to try and get comfortable. Whatever she was lying on was very soft, silky too though it felt dirty.

Opening her eyes again, she looked around from where she was lying to see a sight that she hadn't been expecting. She was lying on a grand four-poster bed with elegant green silk sheets. The material was soft but covered in dust, and on closer inspection Amelia could even see a slight trace of blood. The wood of the four-poster was chipped away and scratched at, like something with large claws had taken a swipe at it at some point in time but allowed for wood worms to make their nests and feed.

Sitting up, Amelia placed her bare feet down onto the wooden floor, shivering slightly as it was fairly cold – she was still in her pyjamas and this room she was in didn't appear to have the proper heating needed for this type of whether. There were two torches lit on either side of the dark red wooden door, and one little candle still flickering away in a holder on the table. Not seeming to need that little source of light, Amelia walked around the room taking in all of its old grandeur.

There was a rich red rug lying across the floor beside the door, but Amelia could tell just by looking at it that it held a lot of life smaller than herself. The table that held the candle was lined up in front of a window – so Amelia walked over to it to try and see where she was, only to get the sight of hundreds of trees leading off into the distance and blocking anything smaller in the distance from sight.

"Where the hell am I?" she muttered to herself, deciding to turn her attention to the desk in front of her. An assortment of papers was littering the top of the desk, but the candle light didn't really seem enough to inspect them properly – the torches on the wall were alright, but she didn't really feel like going near a door any time soon; not after what had happened the last time. On the left hand side of the supports of the desk were three draws so with little other options she looked through them only to find a little bottle of oil tucked away inside the bottom draw – the other two were empty. She set it down carefully on the top of the desk and shifted to the right hand side which held a little cupboard like area. Smiling as she opened it, Amelia reached inside and pulled out an old fashioned lantern and a larger bottle of oil.

"This is very helpful," she said, unscrewing the top of the lantern to poor inside the two bottles. When the lantern was full, she put the lid back on securely and turned the flame on in the bottom – watching as the device started to give off a comforting glow. "Now for those papers…"

Many of the sheets of paper that adorned the desk were torn out extracts from random books, most likely the ones that were on the table – they described some pretty peculiar things; occult things that the teenager had rarely ever thought about in her life time. There were passages about eternal life, resurrection and alchemy – it was as though she had stepped through a door to the distant past into a time where people still believed in the possibility of magic and sorcerers. Some had very odd symbols on them, pentagons and scribbles of ancient languages – not something that you would find in the average library.

But then she saw a yellowing piece of paper that seemed to have been torn from an old fashioned notebook – but not one from that long ago, no, compared to the papers from the books this sheet of paper seemed to have been from a notebook created in the 1990s.

_If you are reading this then I pity you… I pity you greatly… I am so sorry. It's too late for me – I can hear him coming as I write, those horrible groans echoing towards me like a death chime. But I can warn you now: get out of this place. GET OUT NOW. I am not fooling around and this is not a trick. You are in Königsberg Castle. That means that you are in grave danger. I am not sure whether you came here of your own will or were brought here. If you were brought here than you would have witnessed one of the foul creatures that roam the halls of this place. There is more than one, and more than one kind. They are called The Gatherers, and they will come for you as they came for me. So go. GO NO-_

At that point in the note the end was torn away leaving a dark stain of dusky red blood obscuring the end, with flecks of blood littering the hastily written scrawl. Amelia's hands started to shake a little as she read and reread the note over and over again – so the stories were true? All of what was happening was connected to the strange castle she'd seen on her travels into the village and now she was stuck in some random part of said castle surrounded by monsters.

"You sure know how to pick a holiday, Amie," she muttered to herself, shaking her head as she picked up the lantern and turned around. Apart from the door with the torches, there was also a door beside an old wardrobe. She didn't really feel all that keen to look inside – the torch door had light coming underneath it meaning there was some form of light outside, but this door was just black underneath. "Man up, Amie…" she murmured, mentally shaking herself before looking at the door determinedly. "There is more chance of someone being hidden in that closet than there is of someone lurking behind that door."

Nodding to herself, the girl made her way around the bed but paused when she got closer to the wardrobe. Groaning to herself and her paranoia, she walked over to it slowly and put her free hand on the handle – pulling it open slowly and listening to it as it creaked lowly from lack of use.

Jumping back with scream, Amelia clutched at her chest as her heart started to race – a rat, a simple little brown rat, had ran out between the crack of the opening door. Laughing to herself, Amelia shook her head and watched as it ran away; running a hand through her messy blonde hair and taking a deep comforting breath.

"It was just a rat…" she said, stepping aside from the empty wardrobe and making her way over to the side door. She put her hand onto the brass door knob, her hand tensing slightly at the chill that it held. Taking in one more deep breath, she turned the handle and pushed the door open – using the lantern to illuminate inside.

It was a work room – the interior was a horrible, old stone design, the air circulating around cold on Amelia's exposed arms. Along the left hand corner of the room two benches were lined up against the wall holding a whole manner of rusted, blood stained tools littering the surface. The walls were plastered with intricate diagrams of machinery and strange contraptions that seemed to have people inserted in them – like large torture devices growing in capacity for the pain of its victims.

"Gross…" Amelia said as she looked closer at one particular image – a man was hanging upside down from two wooden pillars, he was naked and two other man were sawing him in half as the blood drained down his body into a hole. "Who could even think something like that up…?"

Shaking her head once more, Amelia turned around and continued to inspect the peculiar room. There wasn't really anything of that much interest lying around, but in the corner of the dark room was an old cabinet – it looked similar to the wardrobe in the room she had just exited but this one was a damaged metal like she had never seen before.

"I really hate this place…" she said, walking over to the cabinet and slowly opening it. She looked inside with the aid of her lantern and noticed that there was an old key hung up on a hook at the back. Looking around and behind her, Amelia checked her surroundings for any other sign of life before reaching inside and taking the key from its hiding place. Using the lantern to guide her way out of the room, Amelia pulled the door closed behind her and headed over to the door she had been wanting to avoid that whole time. She turned the handle on it and slowly pulled it open, now finding that the key she had found was for another door somewhere else; she decided that she would have to keep a close eye on the key just in case she needed it at another point.

Stepping out of the room carefully, Amelia looked around her as she had walked into a very narrow hallway. There was a long dark carpet lining the floor beneath her bare feet, leading to a door at either end of the corridor – and one directly in front of the one she had just came out of. The two doors at either end of the corridor were open slightly, a little light flickering from within both out into the hallway – the one in front of her was closed though.

"Which one do I pick first…?" she whispered to herself. "Eanie… meanie… miney… mo…"

With a shudder, Amelia turned to her right and walked down to the far end of that part of the corridor – turning her lantern off to conserve the oil that she had left as the room she was about to enter was bright enough as it was.

She looked around as she entered a fairly large storage room, large wooden shelves lining the outer walls covered with old boxes, chests and crates. Carefully, Amelia pulled the boxes down one by one and started to rummage through them – finding more old documents, like birth certificates and such.

_Lukas Wolfric Beilschmidt (21 November 1742)_

"Beilschmidt…" Amelia said, looking at the birth certificate in her hands. "That's Ludwig's name… I guess he really is a descendant of the people who last ruled in this castle… They must have had a boy born each time to be able to have kept that last name for… Well over 300 years… Shit…"

There was a key lying underneath where the document had just been sitting, just glittering at Amelia in a peculiar way. She picked it up careful before putting the document back in the place she had found it, Amelia set the boxes back into the proper places once more before making her way across the corridor to the other open door. This appeared to be another bedroom, a smaller one this time with only a single bed rather than the large king sized one that Amelia had woken up on.

This room wasn't as furnished as the last one she had been exploring in, it was a simply designed room with not even a desk to loot from. There was another wardrobe though.

"Fucking closets…" she muttered to herself, moving over to the wardrobe and opening its double doors carefully. She gasped and stepped back against the bed, sitting down on it as he legs gave way beneath her at the sight.

Bones. Blood stained human bones, all piled up with a cracked skull on top just lying at the bottom of the wardrobe.

She felt sick, just one look at them and she could tell that they were real. For all she knew, they may have been the person whose note resided in her pocket but she didn't want to think about that. She was utterly disturbed by the sheer thought that someone had died in this place – and their skeleton just dumped callously in a wardrobe for anyone to discover.

Closing the door quickly, Amelia took her lantern and walked out of the room out into the corridor. She pulled the bedroom door shut and sat down on the floor, pulling her knees up to rest her forehead on them. Her breath came out just as shakily as she felt, tears welling up in her blue eyes before she could stop them – she didn't want that to be her, lost somewhere in this castle never to be seen again.

She thought about her family – her father would probably kill himself if he lost another member of his family, and Matthew wouldn't know how to deal with the grief of it all…

She then remembered the inn – Ludwig had been dragged away, Feliciana had been screaming… They had to be in the castle somewhere too. She wasn't sure about Lovina, Antonio or Arthur – she hoped beyond all belief that they were okay, that they weren't in this awful castle. Maybe she would bump into Feliciana or Ludwig on her way through the castle, maybe they could find a way out of there together without bumping into those horrible Gatherers again.

Nodding her head determinedly, she stood up and brushed herself off. "Sitting around moping isn't going to get me anywhere," she said, taking her lantern and heading to the closed door. She turned the handle and pushed, but found that the door wouldn't open. Smiling, she pulled out her two keys and tried the one she had found in the documents box on it – it didn't work. She put it back into her pocket and tried the other key, smiling as she heard the lock click.

"Yes!" she whispered with a grin in her tone, carefully pushing the door open and walking into a dark living room type area. There were two book shelves lined up with a display case between them, a sofa and table in front of an unlit fire and a portrait of a grand man in a military-type outfit looking down his nose at anyone who looked at his portrait.

Gasping slightly, Amelia stepped back a little as she realised that there was someone else in the room – they were by the window, their back to her, but Amelia could tell that they were trying to open the window with no luck.

When they realised that a gasp had been made, they froze slightly and Amelia could hear them mutter something under their breath:

"Bollocks…"

_**Notes:**_

**I know I said Reputation would be updated but I got tired out by the time it came to writing and just couldn't be bothered. I had little to no inspiration and didn't want to spit out something crap.**

**But I promised Monday you would get your answers, mostly… And here they are!**

**Of course Amelia got taken, we wouldn't have a story if she hadn't and hint hint of course for my nicer cliffhanger :D**

**You know, I was listening to the soundtrack to Heavy Rain whilst writing this – it's so beautiful, you can find the songs on YouTube so I highly recommend checking it out :)**

**I hope that you continue to support this series and keep being the awesome readers you are :) I honestly wasn't expecting the response this and some other series have been getting and it means a lot to hear what you think :)**

**See you next chapter :D**


	4. Chapter 3

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Three**

Blinking slightly as the word was muttered, Amelia took a step forward – though she kept a distance away from the mystery man in front of her. Staying behind the sofa just in case, she cleared her throat slightly and stood firmly on the ground.

"Who are you?" she asked, though she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew who this potty-mouth was. The figure span around quickly in genuine surprise, grabbing the first thing he could get his hands on – a candle stick left to cover dust on a small table. However, his arm lowered when he caught sight of Amelia.

"You…" he said, stepping closer to her. Amelia smiled when he came into better lighting, his green eyes, blonde hair and eyebrows becoming a very pleasing sight to her.

"Arthur," said the girl, moving round the sofa quickly – the pair hugging out of sheer relief of the sight of another live human being. They pulled apart after a moment when it caught up to them that they had really only met a few hours previous and didn't know each other that well. Amelia cleared her throat, a light dusting of pink spreading across her cheeks. "So, you got taken here too…"

"Yes," Arthur replied, rubbing the back of his neck as he sat down on the dusty sofa. "I woke up in that door over there," he added, motioning over his shoulder to the open cupboard door on the other side of the room. "It would appear that we are the next victims of the mystery of this castle…"

Sitting down on the sofa beside his, Amelia looked at him carefully – she was still on edge from the dark atmosphere that was held by the castle, knowing that at any moment something could walk through that door to harm them. Thinking quickly, she got up from her seat and shut the door before returning to her seat. "So, how did you manage to wind up here?" she asked. "From what I was aware of, you were in a room that could have been avoided by those monsters."

"I was brought up to never ignore the screams of a lady," Arthur replied, looking at her. "As old-fashioned as it may seem, my family has a very deep history and I am but the next generation to hold the name Kirkland… We have traditions that mean that we are brought up as gentlemen and ladies with the knowledge and respect that everyone should have. So when I heard that Italian girl, Feliciana, scream… I knew that something wasn't right.

"After all the stories I had collected about that castle, all the dates for the disappearances and the tales from those left behind I knew that there would be some connection to that castle going on.

"I couldn't sleep after I'd left you go to my room – my stomach just couldn't settle and my chest was feeling tight. It was strange; I'd never felt nerves like it before so I got into my pyjamas and just sat at the desk in my room with my notebook adding notes from Ludwig's story," he pulled the small book from inside the pocket of his pyjama bottoms, "but just after midnight, I heard that scream… I put it back and hurried out of my room to investigate, but this… this creature was stood at the end of the hall dragging Feliciana away already… I managed to duck out of sight in time to watch… It was grotesque… Its jaw was so dislocated that it was hanging down across its chest… One arm was disfigured to the extent its hand was claws… the other was human though… and it's eyes… They were such an intense shade of blue… Just… blue dots…

"I went to follow, but another came out of another room with that Spaniard… Antonio… It saw me so I ran… I managed to get out of sight again, but then something struck the back of my head and I blacked out… When I woke up I was in that cupboard. The door you came in through was locked; there was no way out of the window – even if I could get it open, we're too high up to survive the drop… I was really losing all hope… just attacking that window... I tried to break the door down but it was impossible… I'm glad you came in when you did."

"Well, I've been told before I have great time keeping," Amelia replied, chuckling a little. "So, Feliciana and Antonio were taken too… I wonder if Lovina managed to get away…"

"I doubt it…" Arthur replied, rubbing his face. "That monster had Antonio from the same room… No doubt another managed to get her… But hope she did get away… Maybe she could find us help…"

"I do hope so," Amelia replied. "Wait… you got hit round the head?" When Arthur nodded, she got up and moved to the seat beside him and turned his head. Carefully, she felt the back of his head and indeed found a large lump at the back and a slight bit of dried blood. "At least any bleeding's stopped…"

"Ah…" Arthur said, looking round to the young woman. He blinked a little at how close she was but made no motion of embarrassment. "Um… How did you get here then? I didn't see you leave your room at any point…"

Sitting back slightly, Amelia rubbed her hands against her pyjama bottoms and sighed. "I heard the screaming too, so got out of bed… I didn't really have the trouble you had getting to sleep… I can sleep through pretty much anything if I try hard enough," she chuckled. "But that scream… It was too real… so I got out of bed and went over to the door. I stayed low so as not to attract any attention and opened the door a crack to look through… I saw that monster… the one you described but with black eyes… dragging Ludwig out of the building…

"I was scared… I didn't know what to do, but then I heard a growl above me… And there it was, another one of those creatures just staring down at me… It threw the door open and it hit my temple… I fell backwards to the floor and the next thing I know I'm lying on some silky green bedspread one floor up and searching through these corridors…

"I found a note too… It warned about this place and the monsters. It was torn and bloody and the person was being chased, and from the sounds of it they were caught too… So, I went to this other place where I found some oil for this lantern and tinderboxes, but there's this trunk and it held the birth certificate for the ancestor that Ludwig was talking about. Lukas Beilschmidt. The son of the last baron. I have another key too, most likely for the other door down the hall but I don't think that getting out of here is going to be as easy as finding a few keys."

"I don't either," Arthur said, getting up and walking over to the fireplace. He looked up at the large portrait above the mantel – one of the baron, his young son and wife. "Baron Beilschmidt was smart. Incredibly smart – though there were times he was considered mad, that man was a genius. He wouldn't have been tasked to create the most revolutionary potion of the century during one of the darker wars of Prussia's history."

"What potion was that?" Amelia asked.

"A potion to create the ultimate healthy soldier," Arthur replied. "Not unlike Marvel's Captain America, but this was darker than that. It wasn't just the creation of a tough soldier – these people would be smarter, faster, stronger, but far from immortal. Their life spans would become shorter as they couldn't risk that kind of power turning against them or those people selling the secrets of the 3 countries involved."

"Well, yeah… that is different," Amelia said, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "Cap can die, that was shown in _Fallen Son_… but he has an extended life span because of the faster healing thing he has."

"But look at this," said Arthur as he went back to the cupboard and picked up a book from a shelf. "This is far from a half-life…"

Hurrying over, Amelia looked at the page Arthur was showing her. "Unsterblich…" she muttered. "But that means…"

"Immortal," Arthur said, nodding his head. "It would seem that the baron was conspiring against his allies to create a potion of immortality… This book has so many notes written in the margins… There's even a spell to bring someone back from the dead for enough time to hold their spirit and give them the potion…

"I'll wager that the baron was trying to bring back his wife and give his family the power to rule for eternity. Imagine all that power they could accumulate…"

"But that doesn't explain why this is all happening now," Amelia griped. "If this all happened just over 700, why are there monsters stealing people every 2 months…?"

"We'll just have to find out, won't we?" Arthur smiled. "Gilbert will likely have set traps to stop us from getting out of the castle easily, so all we have to do is work together to solve the puzzles and we can end this nightmare."

"I may have found the first puzzle," Amelia said.

Blinking slightly, Arthur looked to where Amelia was wondering – looking up at the mirror on the wall, he saw written on the glass in red a message:

_I set in the west and rise in the east,_

_I'm the only thing that hides the beast,_

_For you to progress you will have to find,_

_An object behind the giant that blinds._

"What the...?" Arthur muttered. "When the hell did that get there?"

"I don't know," Amelia replied. "But this is quite helpful… Think about it: what rises in the east and sets in the west? What time do the monsters always come out?"

"Well, the monsters come out in the night," Arthur said. "And well, that's the sun… But I don't think there's a chance of getting something from behind the sun, Amelia."

Rolling her eyes, Amelia looked around the room. "Critical thinking, Arthur," she said. "Think outside the box and the answer will come to you." She grinned and walked to the other side of the large room to where another of the many paintings in the castle hung. "The sun, Arthur," she said, pointing at the detailed swirls and colourings of the star. "And what better thing to hide an object behind than a painting."

Arthur watched, impressed, as she pulled the painting away from the wall to reveal a hole in which there was a metal crowbar. She pulled it out of the hole and smiled, handing it to Arthur so that she could hold the lantern properly again.

"If that can't help us progress then I don't know what will," she grinned.

"That was some clever deduction," Arthur smiled. "Let's head to that other room."

After carefully checking outside, the pair made their way down the corridor to the other door – Amelia trying the handle before getting her other key to unlock the door. She smiled when the lock clicked, grinning at Arthur as she opened the door slowly.

The pair jumped though as they saw a woman stood inside the room – she was dressed in a long red dress, her curly brown hair tied into a messy bun, and her green eyes a familiar shade to them; but she had a pearly glow to her, like she was actually alight. She smiled and faded away, leaving the pair in a startled silence.

"A-Arthur…" Amelia said.

"I s-saw her…" Arthur replied.

Amelia opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a sudden crashing sound nearby followed by a growl they both wished they wouldn't be hearing again. With one final look at each other, they ran into the room and shut the door behind them as a louder growl sounded joined by heavy, quick footsteps.

"Arthur?" whispered Amelia, looking up at the British man but flinching as a loud bang happened against the door. "He's trying to get inside!"

_**Notes:**_

**Oh, long time no update!**

**Sorry!**

**Well, for those of you who weren't aware, I started working on a Christmas story which took up all of my time in December.**

**And then Christmas happened, Boxing Day, my birthday, new years – basically, I was busy! But everything is getting back to normal now because it's nearly the end of the holidays and college will be starting soon :)**

**But there you go :)**

**Oh, and I was also playing Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask so I've been distracted by that and inspired too :)**

**Please don't shoot me if I was slightly off with Captain America – I looked the comic up so blame Wikipedia ( Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America is the full title of the comic series so… yeah ).**

**See ya soon!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Four**

Amelia looked at the door, frozen slightly in panic. Thinking quickly, she looked around the room for any chance of hiding from the creature trying to get into the room or even just another way out of the room. They were in another bedroom – one that wasn't quite as nice as the one she had been in before; the bed wasn't made and the four-posters we scratched and bitten at, holes in them from woodworm and they decay of centuries. The wardrobe in this room was metal like the one in the work room, and the draws in the unit nearby were thrown across the room, one of them broken into tiny pieces.

Somehow, she could see them having a fait similar to that draw if she didn't get a move on, but then she noticed something in the back corner of the room – it was a heavy looking metal door. Hurrying over to it as Arthur held the door shut, she tugged on the handle and pushed against the wood, trying with all the strength she possessed to open the door but it just wouldn't budge.

"What are you doing?" hissed Arthur, wincing as he put all his weight against the door – the banging was getting louder, each thump causing the Briton to jolt.

"There's a door here!" Amelia said back, looking at him. "It won't open though!"

"Oh great!" groaned Arthur, stumbling slightly at an even harder crash. He gasped slightly and got into a more secure position, glancing over at Amelia. "What do we do then? I can't hold this much longer!"

"I don't…" Amelia began to say, but then she saw the glint of metal in Arthur's hand. "Progress… We're such fucking idiots…" she said, hurrying over to him and taking the crowbar from his hands. "You keep hold of the door; I'll get the other open!"

"Hurry!" Arthur urged, flinching slightly as the wood of the door began to splinter against his arm. "Shit…"

Wasting no time, Amelia ran back over to the door and hooked the crowbar in just right. Taking a deep breath, she started to add more weight to it to try and pry the door open – but everything she tried was ineffective.

"Arthur! I can't get it to move!" she said, looking back at him. The Brit looked over to her then up at the door and closed his eyes. "We could barricade the door with that unit. I can hold that at least while you get the door open… You seem stronger than me…"

"…Okay…" Arthur said, watching as Amelia ran over to the unit and started to push it from its spot near the middle of the room to the door. As soon as she was close enough, Arthur shifted out of the way and pulled the unit across with her and made sure that it was right up against the door to at least delay the monster, before running over to the door and working on the crowbar. Amelia pressed her back against the unit, holding it against the door and watching as Arthur started to make a bit more damage to the door than she had been doing. Screaming slightly, she ducked as a panel of the door burst against her – looking up and seeing the clawed hand of the monster poking through a splintered hole. She could feel blood on the back of her neck from various cuts from the broken pieces of wood, but was more focused on keep the monster from getting in any further than it already had.

"Amie, I've done!" Arthur called, kicking the door open. Amelia took the chance to look over at him and saw that because of its age the crowbar had broken but Arthur had indeed opened the door. "Run!" he shouted at her, waiting halfway in the doorway and looking at her pleadingly. Taking another deep breath, Amelia launched herself away from the unit and ran over to Arthur – the pair entering through the door and shutting it as much as they could before starting to run down a peculiar stone corridor.

It was narrow and dark, the only lights available coming from the flickering torches on the walls – but even them some of them were almost extinguished or just not lit at all. Amelia could hear the echo of the beast bursting into the room behind them, the unit crashing against the metal wardrobe as it was flung aside with inhuman strength. She did question why the creature hadn't just done that in the first place – if it could make such light work out of a heavy unit then surely two light humans would have been easy pickings… Unless the creature was just that stupid…

Looking up at Arthur, Amelia saw that he had a cut on his cheek – one that she assumed had happened when the crowbar had broken. It was bleeding slightly, just like the cuts on the back of her neck and she just knew that they were likely to suffer much worse injuries the further through the castle they got.

Behind them, the fleeing pair could hear the creature break down the second door so sped up their pace to try and put a greater distance between them, but already they could hear the creature's growls and heavy footsteps as it sped towards them.

"There!" Amelia cried, skidding onto her knees and crawling into a hole in the wall to her right. It was just big enough for her to get through and Arthur wasn't that much bigger than her, so she looked up at him through the hole and helped him squeeze inside. Turning the lantern off for a moment and keeping silent, the pair stayed on either side of the hole in case the beast tried to look inside – listening as the monster paused by them, a low growl echoing through to them before it continued down the corridor.

"It stinks in here…" Arthur said, covering his mouth. "Turn the lantern back on so we can see where we are…"

"Hmm…" Amelia uttered, turning on the lantern despite the nausea that was starting to sweep over her. As soon as light started to spread through the room, the pair saw exactly why there was such a God awful smell…

They were in what looked like a prison cell, but the walls were caked in dried, rotting blood and chucks of flesh… And they weren't alone… There were two corpses nearby them, one decades of decay ahead of the other. The less decayed corpse had an arm missing and a chuck of its leg – but both were so mangled that neither Amelia nor Arthur could decipher what gender they were.

The grotesque sight before her and the overwhelming smells finally became too much for Amelia, the girl shifting slightly to throw up in the corner of the room. She heard Arthur make a startled noise, blushing despite her vomiting as she felt his arms wrap around her. Once she was finished, she allowed him to pull her upright and hold her close – closing her eyes, she leant her head against his chest where she could hear his heart slowing.

"It's okay," he said, smoothing her side. "It's all going to be okay…"

Though she was mortified for throwing up in front of him, Amelia allowed Arthur to continue to comfort her – she had very little energy left and the smell in the room was still affecting her far too much than she liked. She could feel her whole frame shaking, so gripped hold of Arthur's t-shirt – not even caring that it was slightly damp from the sweat that had built from their run just now.

"I swear to you, we will get out of here alive," Arthur said, holding the girl close to him. It was only then that he remembered that, though he was 21, she was still only 19… He looked down at her, worried that she was worse than she was letting on, but Amelia smiled up at him slightly and nodded.

"I know," she said quietly. "What do we do now?"

"We get out through the cell door," Arthur said, nodding in the direction of a partially open metal door. Looking at it, Amelia shakily got to her feet – she stumbled slightly so Arthur kept his arm around her to keep her steady for the time being. Cautiously, the pair left the cell behind them, thankful that it was only the smell of age old damp getting into their systems this time – but at least it was a lot fresher than the smell of death.

Looking up at Arthur, Amelia started to become very conscious of his arm around her – but the strength was still building in her legs so she had no other choice less she fall to the ground and chance another monster finding her. "Arthur?"

"Yes?" replied the Brit, looking down at Amelia.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" she said quietly. "I shouldn't have done that… Thrown up, I mean… It was gross and…"

"Don't you dare say sorry," Arthur said, looking at her seriously. "You were being human, and in this place… we need to remember that we are still human…"

Staring at him slightly surprise, Amelia nodded and moved a little closer to him. "Can I apologise for being an idiot then?"

Chuckling, Arthur squeezed her slightly as they walked, smiling down at her fondly. "I wouldn't accept it," he said, "because you're far from an idiot."

Blushing a deep scarlet at how he was looking at her, Amelia chuckled bashfully and cleared her throat. She didn't know what was getting into her, she had never acted that way around a guy before – not even the guys she had dated and slept with… There was just something about this guy that was turning her into a giddy school girl even in that horrible environment. However, she stumbled slightly as her foot hit something moving on the floor – both of them looking round in enough time to see that she had stepped on some kind of pressure plate.

All of a sudden, a blood curdling scream sounded from behind them – the pair barely making it out of the way as a bare mangled body was sent flying at high speed down the corridor only to crash against the wall and fall to floor in a garbled, bloody pile of flesh and bones.

Amelia had her eyes firmly closed, her breathing coming out deeply as she pressed herself firmly against the cold, damp stone wall of the narrow corridor. Slowly, she opened her eyes to a very surprising sight – Arthur's body was barely an inch away from hers, his head ducked down by hers and his eyes shut tight, his arms pressed against the wall either side of her body. He'd protected her, shielded her from whatever was coming…

As he opened his eyes, emerald locked with cerulean but no one moved. There was absolute silence as the pair looked at each other, but in what ways neither was sure.

Amelia was the first to look away, glancing down the hallway towards the body that had been shot out of nowhere. Arthur looked over at it too, moving away from Amelia to walk over to it gingerly. Following closely, Amelia held the lantern up so that they could look at the body – it was the naked remains of a man, one whom looked as though he had suffered through months of torture before his body and mind finally gave him the comfort of eternal sleep. Shuddering slightly, Amelia dreaded the thought that popped into her head – if they didn't get out of there as quick as they could, they could be heading for a similar fate…

Looking around them as she heard an ominous moan, Amelia was unsure whether it was another creature or just the old building groaning with the strain of age. Ludwig had said it was on its way to collapsing, a fact that made her want to get out of there even faster.

"It's so dark…" she observed. "We're nearly out of oil in this thing… I have another little bottle but we need to conserve it just in case…"

"Didn't you say you've got tinderboxes?" Arthur asked, looking at the American girl. She nodded. "Well, there are plenty of unlit torches down here; we can take one of them and light it up with a tinderbox."

"Good idea," she grinned, using the lantern to look for one of the unlit torches. Heading over to the nearest torch, Arthur pulled it out of the holder and held it by the wooden handle so that Amelia could light the right end with a tinderbox. Once the flames were properly lit, she turned off the lantern to save the oil.

"Where should we go now?" Arthur asked, looking down at her. Amelia looked up at him to answer, but something caught her eye. She hadn't felt it before but there was a breeze coming from the far end of the corridor, from the direction the man had been shot from. It was causing the direction of the flame to go backwards slightly.

"Down there," Amelia replied, pointing in that direction.

"Can I ask why?"

"There's a breeze coming from that direction. Generally, breezes come through holes or openings," Amelia said, looking up at him. "It's the best chance we have of finding a way out of this area."

_**Notes:**_

**I have been on a roll this week!**

**I have updated every day! I think…**

**Wooo!**

**Anyways, I hope you are enjoying the series so far! I'm going to work extra hard to get these updates out quickly!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Five**

Clichéd as it sounded, Amelia felt as though one of her past nightmares had been brought to life. She could remember one clearly from when she was a child; she was alone, just walking through a long, cold, dark corridor. But it never ever ended – no matter how fast she ran, she just couldn't reach the end of that corridor.

That was what she felt like in that situation. Arthur may as well have been invisible, the only noise from him being the slight tap of the bare skin of his feet making contact with the cold stone floor. She stuck close to him, her arms wrapping around herself as the breeze from the end of the hallway started to chill the exposed skin of her arms and feet. Arthur looked down at her smiled reassuringly again, holding the torch so that they could both see down where they were going with every uneasy step.

"Arthur?" Amelia said quietly, hearing a small 'hmm' from the man in response. "What are we going to do if we ever get out of this place? I mean, this has been going on for hundreds of years and no one really knows why – and if anyone does know they're probably dead or turned into one of those… those monsters…"

"Well, maybe we can find a way out of here and discover why this curse has been going on for so long," Arthur replied, shrugging his shoulders a little. Amelia could see the hairs on his arms standing on end, shifting just a little closer so that whatever body heat they had left mingled. She smiled a little, reassured by his tone but stumbled slightly when he came to a sudden halt.

"What's wrong?"

"I thought I heard something," Arthur said quietly. Amelia held her breath as she caught onto what Arthur had heard – a strangled growl, unlike that of the Gatherer, echoed around them. It was like something in human was choking on a piece of metal, but the thing that scared Amelia the most was that it sounded as though it was coming from right behind them. Putting out the torch, Arthur took Amelia's hand and pulled her swiftly around the first corner they got too – covering her mouth as she gasped slightly. They huddled together in the darkness – Arthur's arms tightly around her to make them as small as possible. Soon enough, they heard chains clanking together as the new monster got closer – Amelia's eyes widening as she caught sight of this new beast.

It was a disfigured, horribly maimed man… His eyes were sunken right into his skull and he was naked except for the chains and spiked torture device digging into the crevices of his neck. It's teeth were sharp and blood-stained, just like the rest of his body and it made arduous noises as it made it's way down the very corridor they were hiding in, but right past them.

Holding their breaths, the pair watched until it disappeared out of sight before getting to their feet and hurrying back to the main corridor. Amelia got another tinderbox and relit the torch for Arthur, the pair looking at each other and clearly seeing the fear in each other's eyes.

"I'd wager that thing was blind," Arthur said. "But it'd be stupid to linger here any longer…"

"Agreed," Amelia replied. Wasting no more time, the pair made their way to the end of the corridor – all too aware that at any moment that creature could return or another could attack them in its place. Soon they found where the breeze was coming from – a wooden panel was blocking their path, but they could feel the cool air seeping in through the cracks and see a visible light shining in to them.

"Well, now what?" Arthur asked, looking at Amelia. "You're the puzzle solver here…"

"We could always just try pushing it forward," Amelia shrugged. "It shouldn't be too heavy with the pair of us pushing."

"Fair enough," Arthur replied, setting the torch carefully down on the floor and moving over to the panel. Amelia got into position too, pressing her weight against the wood as Arthur did the same; both felt the panel shift forwards then swing open, blinking as a bright light hit them in the eyes before they could prepare themselves. "Ah…" Arthur winced, picking the torch up with one had as the other shielded his vision. He looked inside first, blocking Amelia just in case, and found that they had entered the largest private library he had ever seen. The walls were lined with bookshelves, the panel that they had just pushed open being one of them. There were more in the centre of the room, with more going up various levels above them, but from the chill to their bones the pair settled on going over to the sitting area – there were two large armchairs in front of a lit fireplace, and though they knew that someone had been there recently, the desire for warmth was just far too great.

Not really trusting the armchairs, Amelia sat herself down on the floor before the fireplace – outstretching her hands to feel the warmth radiating from the flickering flames. Arthur sat down on the floor too, only his idea was to use the chairs as some form of hiding place or shield should a monster come into the room.

"We really do need to think about how to get out of here," Amelia said, keeping her eyes trained on the fireplace. "This place is huge. We could be in any part of this place and on any floor… If only we could find a map of this place – surely they would have made a map for the servants to use back when it was properly running, or for the Baron and his family… The boy was only young, he could easily get lost in a place this large… We may need weapons too… Anything that can defend us from those monsters… or whatever is turning people into those things. Because that last one was human… He was definitely a human cannibalised by this place and the torture they were still undergoing… I…"

"Amelia, stop," Arthur said, putting his arm around her. Amelia blinked and looked up at him, shaking slightly in his hold. "We… we need to take a break from this… just for a little while… Dwelling on it will only drive us mad, and we need as much sanity as we can if we're going to find a way out of here…"

Though she nodded, Arthur could see the tears starting to form in her eyes. He realised that thinking of way to get them to safety was a way of keeping her mind off of the real trauma that was going on in the back of her mind. She put her head in her hands and took shaky breaths to try and keep herself calm, so Arthur held her closer and tighter to try and provide some sort of solace.

"I need to get out here," she whispered. "It's not for my own needs… it's my family…" Arthur blinked as he looked down at her in surprise. "I told you about my Mom dying… how she was murdered… Well, Dad couldn't cope… he couldn't function properly without her… He turned to drink… He managed to stay sober enough to work during the day, but when he got home… He got through bottle upon bottle… Then he moved us to England when his work transferred him… I thought he'd been fired, but I found letters in his drawers in his office talking about the promotion. Matthew's a year older than me, well, a year and 3 days. So, he left home to go to university at 18 and left me alone with Dad… Dad got worse though, so even though I was relieved to be getting out of there to go to university I was so scared of leaving him alone because I didn't know if he'd be alive the next time I came back…

"I visited Matthew one day too… But he wouldn't open his door… I walked right on in and found him and his friend from the Netherlands smoking some weird drugs… The smell was so sickly… and he was high as a kite… When he came down, he begged me not to tell and promised he'd stop… I promised… but I still smell that sickly scent on when I visit…

"That's why I'm in Germany… I needed a break from it all… I still have two more years in university but this gap year was meant to be one of good adventures… I was going to travel through Europe but thought this place would be a good start… How wrong was I…?

"So, I need to get back home… Not for me, but for them…"

Listening to her sad tale, Arthur soon realised that he had started to smooth her hair softly as he held her. He didn't really know why he wasn't stopping, so continued with the motion until she got to the end of her story. "You've been looking out for them your whole life, haven't you?" he asked gently. She nodded. "You need to start living for yourself. When we get out of this place, you have to do that. They need to make their own mistakes for them to learn…"

"But those mistakes might leave me with no one at all," Amelia said, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

"You won't be alone," Arthur said, looking down into the shiny blue before him. "I promise."

"You can't promise that…" she said. "You only met me… what…?" She looked out of the nearest window and saw the sun rising, staining the world with orange, reds and pinks, "about 12 hours ago…"

"I can promise it," he replied. "You have me now, and I won't leave you alone. Even when we get out of here. I live in London too."

Amelia was surprised but hugged him nonetheless, hiding her damp face against his t-shirt. She wasn't sure how he meant it, but for the time being she was glad to have made such a sincere friend.

"What about you?" she muttered. "Don't you have family waiting for you? A girlfriend, friends, parents, siblings?"

Arthur shook his head, looking down slightly. "No, not really…" he said. "I come from a big family. I have five siblings… and our parents are dead… Mum died during childbirth with my youngest sibling… and Dad died in a car crash because he overworked himself and fell asleep at the wheel…

"Scott's the eldest. He's 24 but he lives in Scotland with his girlfriend… Then there's Bryn, he's 23 and in Wales… Then there's the twins Aednat and Ryan, 22 and in Ireland. And finally Peter, who's 16 and living with Bryn in Wales… Scott couldn't take him in when Dad died and I was still in university myself so couldn't… So Bryn took him in. Scott doesn't like me all that much, Aednat steers clear of all of us as much as she can and Ryan and Bryn just try to stay neutral… They've all moved on with their lives, getting families and kids… Then there's me with my book and making a name for myself…" he paused and sighed, "I wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't care if I was never seen again…"

"I'm sure that's not true," Amelia said, putting her hand on his. Arthur's eyes flicked down to the source of the contact but returned to her face. "Families fight. All the time. I'm sure if you just… talked to each other… You have tried talking to them right?"

Arthur shook his head. "Well, not really…" he said. "There's been contact for Peter's sake… But…"

"Then that's what you'll do when we get out of here," Amelia smiled. "And if you're making sure I'm not alone, I'll make sure you get in contact with them."

Chuckling slightly, Arthur smiled at her fondly and nodded. "Deal."

Grinning, Amelia made a motion of intending to kiss his cheek but caught herself and passed it off as a jump as a bang happened on the other side of the room. Arthur blinked and looked passed her, trying to see what had made the noise. They remained silent just in case a monster had made its way into the room, but both were surprised to hear crying. Human crying.

Amelia was the first to her feet, hurrying between the nearest bookcase towards the crying, feeling Arthur come up right behind her as they peered over towards the door.

Covered in scratches, a gash on her left arm and blood and sweat on her pyjamas, Lovina Vargas was curled up on the floor with her back pressed against the wood of the door sobbing.

"Lovina…" Amelia said softly, moving over to her carefully as the Italian jumped and looked up at them.

"Amelia? Arthur?" she stuttered, looking at them as Amelia helped her to sit up. She let Amelia tend to the wound on her arm, barely able to contain the tremors racketing through her limbs. "What's going on? You're here too?"

"Unfortunately so," Arthur replied, crouching down. "How did you get in such a state? Where's Antonio?"

"I don't know where he is…" Lovina said, wiping her eyes. "We woke up when we heard Feliciana scream but before we could do anything… that… that monster broke into our room… I tried to get away when Antonio told me to run, and it got him but another got me… I woke up in a bedroom a few floors up and started making my way down… But those creatures have been walking around… The one that did this," she pointed to the gash on her arm, "it's face has been split in half to create one long jaw… And one of it's arms has been replaced by a… a large blade… We're in Königsberg Castle, aren't we?"

"Yeah, we are…" Amelia said, nodding her head solemnly. "So, there are more monsters in this place… Ghosts, monsters… what else?"

"Ghosts?" Lovina asked, blinking in surprise.

"Yes, one of a distinctly Spanish woman…" Arthur said. "She was in a room we were fleeing from a monster in…"

"Spanish?" Lovina said, her expression saddening. Amelia put her arm around her and helped her move over to the fireplace. "Where is he…? I never thought I'd say it… but I want him back…"

"We'll find him," Arthur said. "I promise you, we are all getting out of here. We're going to find Antonio, Ludwig and your sister."

Lovina nodded. "I just hope we don't run into this really peculiar creature…" she said. "It's like the other Gatherers… but it's got these horrible piercing blue eyes…"

"My eyes are not horrible!"

Jumping and yelping slightly, the trio looked around to see another pearly glowing person floating nearby them. He was fairly tall (ignoring the floating), with long blonde hair tied back with a blue ribbon, blue eyes and a suit that they judged to be from over 700 years ago.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked, shifting in front of the two girls.

"My name is Francis Bonnefoy and I have come to help."

_**Notes:**_

**Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…**

**Life happened…**

**So sorry.**

**I'm trying really hard to get these stories done – tomorrow there's a chance All of Time and Space will be updated.**

**But anyways, who's surprised by the turn of events? Review and stuff to let me know :D**


	7. Chapter 6

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Six**

Amelia looked around Arthur to get a better look at the spectre floating nearby them – his whole appearance dictated to her that if he were to still be alive that day he would be just over 726 years old. The man, Francis, walked a little closer to them; his hands raised in defence as Arthur's demeanour changed to a more threatening one.

"I mean it," said Francis, his voice thick with a French accent. "I really am here to help. Do you think I like being stuck like this?"

Taking a moment, Arthur sighed and stood up straight, folding his arms over his chest and giving Francis an almost appraising look. Amelia glanced at Lovina as the Italian girl shifted a little closer to her, and she knew that she was more afraid of the situation than she had been letting on before – even when she was crying.

"Fine," Arthur said, looking at Francis and nodding a little. "We'll listen to what you've got to say."

"Good choice," Francis said. "But I must say, you certainly have the stubbornness of an Englishman…" He raised his hands again as Arthur shot him a glare, rolling his eyes. "As I said before, my name is Francis Bonneyfoy but I never got the chance to tell you was I used to be a scientist."

"A scientist?" asked Amelia, moving out from behind Arthur to look at Francis properly. "No offense, but you don't really look like a scientist to me…"

"Times have changed," Francis said, smiling at her. "But please, listen. I was 26 during the time of the War of the Austrian Succession, and in secret I was sent to this castle to help the then Baron Gilbert Beilschmidt to concoct a potion that would give the soldiers of France, Prussia and Spain enhanced strength so that they could beat the armies of the Austrians, British and Netherlanders.

"A Spanish scientist was also sent to aid the Baron alongside me – a rarity for that age, a Spanish woman by the name of Ava Carriedo… I have no idea what happened to her, and I have not seen her since that day…"

"What happened to you?" Amelia asked.

"Time was ticking on for a deadline for the potion…" Francis said, his expression turning slightly scared as he recounted the experience. "Gilbert called me down to the laboratory beneath the basement… I wondered where Ava was as he hadn't called for her, but he turned on me… He threw a weird powder at me and I fell unconscious, and when I awoke I was strapped to a table in a dark cell… The only light available to me was the small flicker of a candle in the far corner of the room…

"Gilbert came in and tortured me… He removed ribs, joints, limbs… He fed me a dark red liquid that tasted foul… and I felt myself dying and changing… changing into one of those beasts…"

"How are you here talking to us then if your body is walking around hunting for people inside this castle?" questioned Lovina.

"I don't know," Francis said, shrugging his shoulders solemnly. "Maybe because I died for that creature to live…? All I have been able to learn from the various people being brought to this castle still… is that something happened that same day that caused Gilbert to lose all knowledge of the rest of the potion that he had figured out from my body… He is not dead. He is still in this castle, probably down in the laboratory trying to figure out the rest of that potion. It's like something has been keeping him from it no matter how many people he takes from the village…"

"I don't think it's enough to have the potion," Arthur said, eyebrows furrowing in thought. "The one thing that I have learnt about this Baron from wandering around this castle to general research before coming to this village… he loved his wife more than any woman in the world… and he loved his son beyond on any measure of belief… He wants his family to be whole again, it would be safe enough to wager… Ludwig is his descendant which would make sense for him bringing him to the castle finally…"

"And what about Feliciana?" snapped Lovina. "What has she got to do with any of this? Where is she? I swear, if she is being tortured down there…"

"No, believe me I wander around there a lot to try and find out what is going on…" Francis said. "There are no girls down there."

"Where is she then?"

"What does she look like?"

"Red hair, a curl pointing in the opposite direction to mine, amber eyes…" Lovina said.

"She is hiding two floors down," Francis smiled. "There is also a brown haired boy on the same floor, but he's unconscious and on his front so I wouldn't be able to get a good look at him. The blonde boy is down in the lab though…"

"This is a great start," Amelia said, smiling. "We know where they are, and know we know where we have to go to get answers and end this! No more people have to die because of this man."

"You're missing a key point though, Amelia," Arthur said, glancing at her before looking at Francis seriously. "How is Gilbert still alive after over 700 years? He should be dead by now if had not died back then or at least be a ghost like you. If he is alive, then how?"

"I'd take a guess that he had some of the finished potion without our knowledge before it went wrong…" Francis said.

"And you mentioned a Spanish girl!" Lovina said, moving around from behind Arthur finally with a bright look in her eyes. "Ava Carriedo? Would she be the ghost Amelia and Arthur saw?"

"You two saw someone else?" blinked Francis, genuinely surprised by this news.

Amelia nodded. "Green eyes, brown curly hair in a pretty bun, a red dress…"

"Ava…" Francis said distantly. "Oh my…"

"She could be an ancestor of Antonio!" Lovina said, looking at the blonde pair. "Think about it! They look the same, share the same last name… Antonio could be in even more danger than we thought… If Ava had anything to do with stopping Gilbert from using the rest of that potion…"

"Oh shit…" Arthur said, rubbing his head. "This is going to be tougher than we thought…"

"I vow to you all that I will help you as much as I can," Francis said, drawing their attentions back to him. "But for now I must go…"

Before they could protest, Francis vanished from sight leaving them alone in the large library. Arthur sighed and kicked at the nearest chair to release some of his frustrations.

"Yes, I can tell how much help he is going to be," he groaned, rubbing his now sore foot. Amelia forced him to sit on the seat to rest his foot for the time being.

"Don't be such an idiot," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "So, what should we do now? We have two monsters behind us, two in front of us and ghosts wandering around whilst an evil scientist is waiting in the basement… If this wasn't as serious as it is, this would actually be kinda exciting…"

"Why don't we try looking around the library to find more clues?" Lovina suggested, looking between the pair. "What better place to find more information than a library, right?"

"Good idea," Amelia said, getting to her feet. "We'll look around and you rest your foot cos we may need to do a fair bit more running in a bit."

"Fine," grumbled Arthur, turning the chair a little so that he could see both doors and keep an eye on them just in case anything were to go wrong. The two girls wander off into different sections of the library, searching along the shelves that were thick were old heavy books that looked as though they held eons worth of information that seemed to be meant only for the Baron.

Everything seemed to be in order, until Amelia got to the section nearest the back of the room. On each shelf, one or more books were missing from the various subjects available. Curious, she took a closer look at the list of subjects…

Scientology… Human Body… Mythology…

"Guys, looks like Francis was telling the truth…" Amelia said, looking round as Lovina and Arthur made their ways over to her. "Look at this section of books… All the rest are packed solid, and yet this area looks as though it's been freshly looked at. Books are missing. But the weirdest thing is, Human Body and Mythology I can understand, they're age old subjects… But Scientology was only formed in 1953… and Germany is one of the countries like the United Kingdom that may allow Scientology churches to run, but it's not a recognised religion like Christianity or Hinduism.

"So, why would a man from the 1700s have books about a subject not recognised or created until the 1900s? He's had to have left the castle himself to go other countries that do recognise this subject. Like, Italy or Spain… or even the United State of America… If he was able to travel that far…"

"Well, there's an odd connection then…" Arthur said, looking over the books on the shelf carefully. "Scientology in our countries…"

"Fuck this…" Lovina muttered, rubbing her temples in frustration. She gasped and looked round quickly though as they all heard a growl by the library door. "Oh no… It's back…"

"We can't go back there though…" Amelia whispered, looking at the secret entrance. "There are two back there…"

"We have to climb up the bookcases to the balconies up there," Arthur said, nodding upwards. Gulping slightly, the girls muttered their agreement and hurried over to the firmer looking bookcases, climbing up them carefully and getting to the top just as the library door burst open. Amelia leant over and helped pull Arthur up onto the balcony level of the library as the Gatherer started to walk in and around the bookcases.

"The torch…" Lovina whispered, pointing over to the sitting area where Arthur had left the unlit torch by the seat. They watched as the Gatherer moved over to the fireplace and looked at the torch before growling menacingly and running off into the secret entrance.

"Oh what an idiot…" Amelia sighed in relief. "Good thing we left that open…"

"It probably thought we went that way…" Arthur said. "Or at least, Lovina did."

"Now what though?" Lovina asked. "We've gone up a level when we need to go down."

"Sometimes heading up means we can go down," Arthur smiled. Lovina gave him a questioning expression so he chuckled. "Think about it. There are 3 back there now, and 1 somewhere beyond that broken door. But, if we shut the other entrance, that's 3 we won't have to worry about for a little while if we climb down again. 3 against 1 has better chances of getting away or winning than 3 or 4 against 3."

"Brilliant," Amelia grinned, climbing down first. Once the trio were back on the floor, they hurried over to the shelf and pushed it closed until they heard it lock – effectively sealing those monsters inside for the time being. After Arthur collected the torch again, they tentatively made their way through the doorway – careful of the broken remnants of the library door that lay splintered in the carpet.

They found themselves in another long wide corridor, and thankfully the lighting was okay for them to be able to see where they were going. Following Lovina's instructions of rooms she had investigated whilst trying to find a way away from the monsters, they ignored all the doors that she pointed out – trying to find a way that would take them to the next floor down.

"Wait a minute…" Lovina said. "I just remembered the note and key I found…"

"You've had a note and key this whole time?" Amelia blinked. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

"I was kinda freaked out by the monsters and ghosts!" Lovina said, rolling her eyes at the younger girl. "Look…" She pulled note and key out of her pyjama bottoms right pocket and handed the items to them.

_I managed to steal this key from that monster with the blue eyes! It never saw anything! I can hear it wandering around though so it's still looking for me… If anyone finds this, please find your way out of here! It's too late for me, so ju-_

The note was torn off near the end, but the blonde pair knew how it must have ended… _Just get out of here alive._

"Well that's helpful in a way," Amelia said. "We'll just have to keep trying doors you didn't until one unlocks."

"Si…" Lovina said, rubbing her arm. "Let's get going, before it comes back… There's one more door down there, so it may be for the stairs?"

"That's as good a bet as any," Arthur said, walking with the girls down the corridor quickly until they reached the door – Amelia reaching her hand forwards and trying the doorknob only to find that it was locked. "Please tell me we actually have the key already…"

Amelia smiled and went to put the key in the lock, but stopped when she heard a noise down the end of the corridor. It was different kind of growl, then a scrape of metal against wood… She looked round and saw the monster Lovina had described, the one with a blade for an arm and a mouth over its face walk out of the room opposite the library and start looking around. Arthur and Lovina saw it too, the trio ducking into the bedroom behind them and shutting the door as they heard the monster snarl and start to make its way down the corridor.

"Shit…" Amelia said. "Shit. Shit. Shit!"

"What do we do?" Lovina asked, looking around the room.

"You two hide in that wardrobe," Arthur said, pointing to the large wooden item in the corner of the room. "Keep the door shut and stay quiet."

"What about you?" Amelia asked, looking at him terrified.

"I'll hide under the bed," Arthur said. "The covers are long enough that they touch the floor and these creatures don't seem to be the brightest… They look around the room and if it's not in plain sight, they ignore any prey in the room… I'll be fine."

Amelia was about to protest, but the monster growled outside the door and started to use its blade to cut through the wood with strong fast blows. The girls got into the wardrobe as quickly and quietly as they could, leaving Arthur to crawl under the bed and listen…

He flinched slightly as the door was broken down, taking a chance at peaking slightly from under the cloth…

The monster was in the room and heading straight for the wardrobe…

_**Notes:**_

**I'm trying… I'm really trying…**

**I've got a pattern going now, kinda… and I'm determined to get through these stories.**

In The Shadows** is nearly done and should have its final chapter posted on Thursday or Friday. The next update should be **All of Time and Space**, but tomorrow is my long day of college and I have no clue for an episode… So chances are it'll be **The Aftermath is Secondary** getting updated next. Then it'll be **Reputation** or **All of Time and Space**… Depending on whether I figure out an episode…**

**But yes! Cliffhangers… I'm good at leaving things hanging and well… I like being a bitch with these stories XD**

**And actual facts! Actual real facts coming into play!**

**Until next time!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Seven**

Eyes wide, Arthur tried to keep as calm as possible as he watched the beast make its way ever closer to the wardrobe that contained Amelia and Lovina. He was kicking himself for suggesting that they hide there – of course it would think to look through a door, they were all smashing through enough as it was what difference would a wardrobe door be?

Putting his forehead down on the floor, Arthur tried to block out the nose of the creature's footsteps as the wood beneath its feet creaked with every step. His nails scratched the wood as his hands clenched into fists. His head shot up though as he heard the clash of metal against wood – he could hear nothing from the girls, but the monster was swinging its arm madly, slicing at the wood with all the force it could muster.

Though it didn't seem as strong as the other monster, it was making small work with the old wardrobe door – the wood was brittle and decaying from age and woodworm, and eventually parts of it broke away and started to scatter over the girls. They screamed as the blade swooped by their heads, cornered completely as the monster snarled and continued to assault their hideout.

Wasting no more time, Arthur scrambled out from underneath the bed and shouted out at the creature. It took a moment but it stopped its attack and turned to look at Arthur, its long mouth opening and closing, watering as it somehow smelt the adrenaline and sweat on Arthur's body.

"Come on!" he shouted at the beast. "You want to attack someone, come and get me!" He glanced at the girls peeking out of the wardrobe, shooting the pair looks that told them to run. The monster screeched and lunged at him, making enough room and time for the girls to escape from the room – Arthur, though, had to think fast. He ran round to the other side of the bed as the creature swung its arm out, ducking out of the way as it collided with the thick wood of the four-poster. Laughing as the monster tried to break free, he took the opportunity to make his way over the mattress and out of the room.

"Shit," he heard the girls cursing, getting to them just as Lovina managed to use her key to get the door to the stairwell open. She threw the door open and ran inside, holding it open for Amelia and Arthur to make their way inside too before shutting it quickly. They made their way downstairs quickly, not looking back just in case the monster was following them again – hopefully the beast would be stupid enough to think they were on the same floor due to the closed door, but that was just wishful thinking.

As they reached the next floor down, the trio found themselves in a bright open atrium area. The floor was a cool, grey, stone material that was a nice contrast for their bare feet as they walked deeper into the soft light. Near the large windows before them, the glass stained with bright colours and pictures of roses and magical symbols, a tall, peculiar fountain stood billowing water into a wide pool. Decided that was their best bet for the time being, the trio made their way over and took small sips from the pool to quench their thirsts – the water was clean and natural, thankfully.

Looking at the girls, Arthur frowned a little at the cuts and splintered wounds that he saw on their faces and arms.

"Are you two okay?" he asked, looking between them. Lovina smiled and nodded, watching as Amelia made her way forward and hugged the Briton tightly. "Amelia?"

"I'm fine," she said, closing her eyes and keeping her hold on him. "I'm just glad you are too…"

Arthur chuckled softly and held her close, glancing at Lovina slightly consciously. "Of course I'm fine."

"You used yourself as bait to get that thing away from us," Amelia said, looking up at him with confused blue eyes. Arthur smiled down at her, nodding. "Why?"

"I couldn't just lay there and let you two get killed, could I?" he replied, looking at her seriously. "I have promises I intend to keep."

Amelia nodded and smiled, letting him go to look around the atrium. "This place is pretty impressive," she said, folding her arms a little. "Look… There's internal levels too."

Looking around the room, Arthur and Lovina realised that Amelia was absolutely right – behind them, though they hadn't noticed it before, was a staircase that led to a single door, then below that was another door with a sign that read _Gesindehaus_. Finally, off to their far left was a large, wooden door with metal supports that looked as though it led to the next floor down. Arthur hurried over to the large door and tugged on the handles, throwing his weight against it but sighing as it never budged.

"Fucking locked," he snapped, slamming his fist against the wood. He walked back over to the girls, letting Amelia take hold of his hand to check out the faint bruise forming along the side. "What does that sign say?" he asked, his voice softer than before.

"_Servants Quarters_," Amelia translated, looking at Lovina as she heard the girl let out a small gasp. "Lovina?"

"This is the floor Francis said Antonio was on right?" the Italian girl said, looking at Amelia who nodded. "That must be where he is then… Right? That's where the servants slept so it would make sense right?"

"Well, we're not going anywhere else fast," Arthur said. "We might as well have a look and see if we can find a key or a puzzle to unlock the door while we're at it."

Steeling themselves, the trio made their way away from the calmness of the fountain to the uncertain door to the servants quarters. Amelia could feel her hands shaking as they got closer to the area, knowing that whatever was behind that door could be deadly in some way – they didn't know if Antonio really was behind that door, or what other monsters could be wandering around. But she couldn't tell them not to go inside – Lovina needed Antonio and who was she to stop her? Holding onto the bottom of her t-shirt, she watched as Arthur reached forwards and took hold of the handle and tried to open the door.

"Why are all these door locked?" he groaned, rolling his eyes in the direction of the door up the stairs. "It seems we have to head up to go down again…"

"For fuck's sake…" Lovina complained, taking one last look at the servants quarters door before following Arthur and Amelia up the staircase to the door labelled _Arbeitszimmer_.

"What does this one say then?" Arthur asked, taking hold of the handle.

"_Study Room_," Amelia said, holding her breath as the handle turned and the door swung open easily. Taking a step into the dark, she turned the lantern on and looked around with the other two – the trio surprised to find it was larger on the inside than they were expecting. They had walked into what was effectively a small hallway – before them was a door that looked small enough to be a simple cupboard, to their left was a slightly open door in which they could just about make out a bedroom, and to their right was what they assumed to be the study.

"We'll look in the bedroom in a minute," Arthur said. "We need to search the study first though."

Though she wanted to check the bedroom, Lovina nodded and went with the blonde duo into the study – they looked around at the mess of a room, taking in one fine detail at the same time: the paper on that was scattered around the room was fairly new.

"What the…" Amelia muttered, picking up one sheet of paper. "'I understand that waiting must be killing you, and I wish that I could help you further but I do not know what the correct formulation is… Patience will reward you.'"

"Listen to this," Lovina said, picking up another sheet. "'The villagers are scared of the stories but they are going along with their business… It's almost amusing seeing them try to get on without their loved once. I was reluctant to take the boy – he was a good friend, but needs must. I hope he proves of some value to you.'"

"Apparently someone is spying on the village and helping our dear friend the Baron victims," Arthur said, narrowing his eyes. "They've been picking off houses across the whole town…" He held out a sheet of paper, a map of the village with names and marks on it to show who was still living and those who had been taken. "The Inn was the next target it seems from the pattern, but it's not been marked off just yet…"

"But who would betray Ludwig and Feliciana like that?" Lovina asked.

"It could be anyone," Arthur said. "The whole village knows the story of this castle…"

"That can wait," Amelia said, drawing the attentions of the other two back to her. She had a smile on her face and in her right hand was something small and slightly rusted. "I found the key."

"Brilliant," Arthur grinned. Lovina smiled too, the trio heading out of the study to go to the bedroom. However, as they entered the hallway they heard a noise outside the door. Panic setting in as they heard it getting closer, Lovina hurried into the bedroom to hide whilst Amelia and Arthur ducked into the cupboard behind them.

It was small and cramped, the pair having to press together to keep from making any noise – Amelia against the wall with Arthur looming over her. They listened intently as the door outside opened and someone strode inside muttering in German.

"Ava ist nicht zu stoppen mich dieses mah... Ich bin so nah... So sehr nahe..."

"Gil…" Amelia started to whisper, only to have her mouth covered by Arthur's hand as he nodded his head.

"URGH," groaned the Prussian, walking into his study from what the pair could hear. "THAT BITCH. MY NOTES!"

They held their breaths as he ran out of the study and back out of the hallway once more, the door slamming behind him. Cautiously, the trio came out from their hiding places and looked at each other.

"What did he say the first time…?" Lovina asked, looking at Amelia.

"Ava isn't going to stop me this time... I'm so close... So very close..." Amelia repeated. "From the sounds of it, she wrecked his study and made that mess… He certainly sounded surprised to see it in the state it was. But he also knows that the ghosts are in the castle. At least he knows about Ava, that is."

"How are you so fluent in German?" Arthur asked, looking at the girl.

"I took extra curriculum stuff at school and college," she shrugged. "French, German and Spanish… I liked studying about the world and languages."

"Well, it's a good thing you were so studious then," Arthur said. He looked to Lovina. "Did you get a chance to look around the bedroom?"

She nodded. "It's all but empty aside from some shirts."

"Let's head down to the servants quarters and look for Antonio then," he said, scratching his head. "Chances are Gilbert has gone back upstairs or opened that big door but it'll be stupid to go anywhere else with him so close by."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Having made their ways down stairs again, the trio took things slowly and quietly as they wandered across the hall – all unsure whether Gilbert was nearby or not. Amelia could feel her heartbeat racing again, staying close to Arthur until something caught her eyes.

A small bottle was tucked out of sight, a purple liquid inside glimmering enticingly to her. She crouched down and picked it up, looking at the faded label carefully. _Laudanum_. She had heard of the substance before – a mixture more commonly known as the Tincture of Opium, but somehow she knew that in this place the item in her hand would be just that bit more… magical.

She looked round when Arthur and Lovina called to her, getting up and walking over to the confused pair.

"What's the matter?" Arthur said, putting his hand on her back gently. She held out the bottle and shrugged.

"This might be helpful at some point," she said. "But it might be best for me to keep hold of it."

After reading the label, Arthur nodded and let her move forward to use the key on the servants quarters door. They watched as the wooden structure creaked open, using the lantern to guide themselves inside as they found them in a room with many beds lined up against the wall beside miniature chests of draws.

And in the far corner of the room laying on a bed on his front as described was Antonio. Forgetting the blonde pair, Lovina ran down the middle aisle until she came to a halt beside Antonio. She let Amelia and Arthur catch up and shine a light over them before gently turning the Spaniard over – the movement stirring him.

Slowly, his green eyes opened and locked onto Lovina's, the Italian girl finally succumbing to her stress and crying in sheer relief as she wrapped her arms around him. Startled, Antonio held the crying girl close, looking around at Arthur and Amelia.

"What… Lovina, what's going on…? Where are we…?" he asked, sitting up carefully to cradle her on his lap. Lovina couldn't talk for a moment though.

"Have you been out cold this whole time?" Amelia asked, receiving a nod from the Spaniard. "Well, we're in Königsberg Castle… The legend was real and we've all been brought here by those monsters…"

A flash of realization crossed Antonio's face, the colour draining from him as he remembered what happened to him in the inn. Pressing a firm kiss to the top of Lovina's head, he looked over her body and took in all the scratches, cuts and bruises.

"We were all separated," Arthur explained, noticing the worried look on his face. "And as we started to reunite, the monsters were hunting and we were attacked a fair few times. Luckily, this is the worst our injuries have been so far…"

Antonio nodded. "What of Feliciana and Ludwig?"

"F-Feli is downstairs," Lovina sniffed, wiping her eyes. "And Ludwig's in the inner sanctum cells…"

Noticing Arthur was walking away, Amelia lit the torch above Antonio and Lovina with one of the torches and followed after him with the lantern to give them some privacy. She put her hand on his arm as he walked over to a large wardrobe at the end of the hall, the Briton looking down at her – Amelia could see the frustration in his green eyes, so moved her hand down his arm to his hand which she squeezed reassuringly.

"Please don't give up," she said quietly, glancing back at Antonio and Lovina. She saw the closeness between the pair now they'd been reunited, how softly Antonio held her and how gently she held his face. "We all need to keep up hope… Find something to keep our spirits up…"

Arthur looked at the couple too, then down at their hands – entwining their fingers, he looked at her and smiled a bit. "I won't give up."

_**Notes: **_

**And after another relaxing (not) weekend off, I have started another week of story updates :3 **

**Translations… Just blame Google translate okay? I know the translations are likely to be off but there you go. **

**AND WE HAVE FOUND ANTONIO! Ah, a bit Spamano love again ;3**

**Fluff all round!**

**But whatever is going to happen next?**


	9. Chapter 8

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Eight**

Smiling as she looked down at their hands, Amelia couldn't help but feel a blush forming on her cheeks. She looked up at Arthur and saw him smiling softly at her, and for a moment she forgot that they were in a dark, haunted castle. She forget that they were in danger, that monsters were wandering around the corridors, groaning and screaming for blood.

But then a chill shivered down her spine bring her back into reality, her smile slipping from her face as she looked around the dark room. Arthur gave her hand a squeeze and looked around too, neither knowing just what to do next.

"We still haven't found a way off of this floor yet…" he said, taking the lantern from Amelia and holding it higher so the light spread further. There were no clues, no obvious locations for a key to be hidden - a fact that was starting to frustrate the Brit once more. He kept in mind what Amelia had said to him though, taking a deep breath and keep a good hold on her hand to remind himself not to give up. "There was definitely a key hole right?"

"Now you mention it, I don't remember seeing one," Amelia said, looking up at Arthur. "What if this is another puzzle? We have to find another way to get down or the real way to open the door?"

"That makes sense…" Arthur said, furrowing his eyebrows to try and think of a possible way to open a door that size. "This could have all been one big trap… A way to distract us – we have been so accustomed to finding a key to open the door that we forgot that one of the doors needed to be pried open with a crowbar!"

"A trap…" Amelia muttered, looking over at Lovina and Antonio. The pair had finally started to pay attention to Arthur and Amelia's conversation, panic on their faces as they realised what they were implying.

"A monster could be coming…?" asked Lovina, helping Antonio to his feet and walking over to them. "That's what you mean right? That monster from upstairs? Gilbert was on this floor just now, he could have gone to let it down here? Or let another monster in?"

"That's exactly what we're saying…" Arthur sighed, looking around. "Let's go back out into the atrium and see if we can find some way of opening that door…"

Nodding, the group took the lantern and the torch, the two guys carrying the light sources and walking slightly ahead of the girls as they made their way back to the main door of the servant's quarters. All of them could feel the nerves building in their stomachs as they got closer to the door again, but it was a numb feeling now for the 2 girls and Arthur – the long night they had just endured getting them somewhat used to the environment they had been thrown into and giving them a sense of what they should expect next, though nothing really could be expected.

Walking out into the atrium carefully, they blinked at the sudden bright light – turning the lantern off and putting the torch out for the time being as they shut the door behind them and quietly made their way back over to the fountain so Antonio could have a quick drink of the cool, clear water.

"I say, when we get out of this area and downstairs we find somewhere for you guys to crash," he suggested, washing some of the water over his face before looking at the tired looking trio. "You have been going all night from what Lovina told me… You need to rest or you'll be easier targets for whatever is lurking in this castle."

"He's right," Amelia said, taking a sip of water too. "As soon as we get Feliciana from whatever room she is in downstairs, we go find somewhere to rest in peace – somewhere where those monsters will have a hard time getting to us. I don't particularly want to wake up and see those beady eyes staring back at me again…"

"Those are going to haunt me for a long time…" Lovina said, shuddering slightly. She calmed a little as Antonio held her hand, moving closer to him as the Spaniard stroked his rough thumb lightly over her bruised hand. She smiled a little at him, pulling up to his feet when he started to stand up – looking to the others as they all made their ways over to the large door. "What do you think we have to do then?"

"From the looks of it, it must be some kind of pressure plate, button or lever," Amelia said, looking it up and down and the studying the surrounding area. "There's definitely no key hole…"

"Let's get searching then," Antonio smiled, looking around the atrium for any sign of something that could be pressed, pushed or pulled to open the door. The others joined in, wandering around taking tentative steps in case they did find a plate – but not one that they wanted.

Wandering away from the others, Amelia looked around near the staircase to the study – the suits of armour on either side of the door catching her attention. Watching the others walk around, she made her way upstairs and looked carefully at the two suits; taking in every detail carefully. Stepping forwards, she saw a small inscription engraved into the chest plate of one of the pieces of armour:

_Ein guter Soldat hält seine Klinge in der Hand._

"A good soldier keeps his blade at hand…" Amelia muttered, looking between the two suits – finding that one was holding a sword whilst the other had nothing. Grinning, she turned around and leaned over the bannister to look down at the others. "Guys! I think I've figured it out!"

Arthur looked up at her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he hurried over to the stairs and joined her. He didn't even need to read the inscription to realise what they needed to do. "Find a sword!"

"A sword?" asked Antonio, looking up from near the bottom of the stairs.

"Why?" asked Lovina.

"To add it to this suit of armour," Amelia grinned. "The writing on one of them says 'a good soldier keeps his blade at hand' and one of them is missing one. It stands to reason they need to match and the soldier here needs his weapon."

"You're clever," Antonio grinned, hurrying off to try and find the blade they would need. Amelia smiled and looked at Arthur, blushing a little at the proud expression she saw on his face as he looked at her – she didn't really understand quite why he was proud of her, or why she was reacting the way she was, but she liked it. Looking round, the smiled as the Spanish-Italian pair hurried up the stairs with an extremely rusty sword at hand – both Amelia and Arthur a little perplexed as to how they found it.

"It was in a rack all by itself," Lovina said, pointing to a little alcove underneath the stairs. "We didn't check it out earlier so it seemed like a smart bet to check there first."

"Good job too," Arthur said, taking the sword from Antonio and carefully putting it in the hand of the suit of armour. Blinking, they all looked around when they heard a loud, heavy click happen on the other side of the room watching as the two doors swung open slowly to reveal what looked like a long stone passage way. Making their ways downstairs again, they walked over to the doors and took in the massive stone bridge that was connecting one part of the castle to another – secretly impressed by the sheer density of the building they were in.

Staying close to Arthur as she walked, Amelia looked out of the stone archways down to the courtyard bellow them – watching as Gatherers fought beside a large fountain in the middle of the greenery. If the situation hadn't been as dire and the monsters hadn't been wandering around, she would have been royally impressed by the scenery presented before her – the tours that could have been held in that place or just the chance to live in that place before the baron had turned it into a den of blood and death…

She could imagine the lights shining through the stain glass windows, feet running across the clean wooden floors and laughter ringing through the halls as people went along their merry ways. A distant image to what she was being given now – the blood and smell of decay and damp filling her nostrils at every opportunity, the darkness seeming to try and consume her from the inside out, and the mind-numbing fear threatening to paralyse her at any given opportunity.

Even at that moment, she felt that it had been too easy. Way too easy. They were simply walking across a platform after solving a puzzle which should have been far more difficult to solve that it had been. They were walking to an area they had no idea what it would hold from one that had just held 3 monsters and the baron himself and yet there were no signs of any of them as they took their tentative steps.

She looked up at Arthur and could see the same thoughts crossing his face, then to Antonio and Lovina and seeing the same nervous edge on theirs'. Glad that she wasn't the only one being riddled with paranoia, she held onto Arthur's hand again as they got to the next door, only letting go of it long enough for Arthur and Antonio to pull it open and let them inside to the stairs. Heading down them, Amelia looked at Lovina, watching the older girl shake slightly with the want to find her younger sister.

The sight made her wonder whether Matthew even knew she was missing. She figured that he didn't as no one ever told about the events within the village – like it was some taboo mythology that would draw too many eyes to their sleepy town. But if he did, was he looking for her? Was he making his way to the village to try and find answers or some kind of clue as to where she could be? Did her father know? Were they worried?

"Well, this is going to be difficult…" Arthur said, drawing Amelia back into reality once more. Blinking, she looked through the corridor and took in the vast amount of doors – anyone of them could be holding Feliciana but they still had no idea whether she had woken up.

"I guess all we can do is look through the doors and hope for the best," Antonio said, glancing at Arthur who nodded his agreement. Slowly, the group wandered down the hallway, opening doors as they went along in hopes of spotting Feliciana on any of the beds in rooms that turned out to be bedrooms. Lovina was getting more agitated as they went along, panicking at the thought of anything happening to her little sister. Antonio put his arm around her and kissed her head, trying to keep her as calm as he possibly could as they got to the final room.

"Where is she?!" Lovina asked; her voice breaking as she looked round at them all. Tears dotted in her eyes, threatening to leak – a sign to Antonio that she really was freaking out as she hardly ever cried in front of anyone. He held her close and smoothed his fingers through her brown hair gently, kissing the top of her head as she sobbed into his chest.

"We'll find her, querida," he muttered. "She has to be around here somewhere… Maybe she's just hiding?"

"I guess…" Lovina sniffed, pulling back from him and wiping her eyes – refusing to look at anyone of them. When she finally looked at them and opened her mouth, she was cut off by an all too familiar snarl. Her eyes widened as she looked past Amelia and Arthur, the pair looking behind them and watching as the blade-armed monster walked through the door at the end of the corridor. It paused and tilted it's head as it looked down the corridor at them, then screeched loudly and started to run.

"RUN!" Arthur shouted, pushing Amelia ahead of him as they ran into the nearest room and slammed the door shut behind them. He and Antonio put their body weights against the door and tried to hold it closed as the girls ducked under the bed, remember last time that wardrobes were a very bad idea with this monster. Looking at each other, the two guys had only a moment before they were thrown backwards as the monster broke through the door with mindboggling strength. Arthur grunted as he hit one of the pillars of the four poster bed, holding his ribs as he hit the floor in time to see Antonio collide with the wardrobe.

The monster came in at full speed, wasting no time in angrily attacking the pair. Its arm swung and hit wood and wall as the pair ducked around it, trying to find some way to hit them. Arthur watched for a moment as Antonio ducked out of the room, jumping onto the bed and hurrying across it as the monster took a swing at him. He wasn't sure what Antonio was playing at, but he knew that he had to lure the monster out of the room and away from the girls.

However, as he started to make his way to the door, the monster managed to run in front of him, its blade thrusting forwards.

At the same time, Antonio ran back into the room and swung an axe at the beast – taking its head clear off with on blow.

"Why did no one think of this sooner?!" he panted, pulling the creature back and out of the way as its head slumped to the floor. "Arthur…?"

Climbing out from under the bed now they realised the coast was clear, the girls got out just in time to see Arthur fall to his knees as Antonio tried to support him.

"Arthur?" Amelia said, hurrying round to his side and kneeling with him. Her eyes widened as she saw the large blood stain growing on his front, his breath rattling in his chest and sweat starting to form over his body. He slumped again, Amelia holding him close as he fell to her lap. "No… Arthur!"

_**Notes:**_

**Oh, yeah.**

**That happened.**

***backs away slowly***

**SEE YA NEXT TIME.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Nine**

Sweat was building on his skin quickly, too quickly for Amelia's liking. She held his damp body close to hers, laying him across her lap and ducking her head down onto his. She could tell that the other two were watching them carefully; trying to think of anyway that would save Arthur from the predicament they were in.

His breathing was shallow and harsh, his frame shaking hard as his scared green eyes looked down at his torso weakly and took in all the blood escaping from the large wound on his chest. He could feel Amelia's fingers running through his hair on one hand, the other hand pressing down on the wound with a cloth that Lovina had found to try and staunch the bleeding.

"A-Amie…" he choked, looking up at her. She looked down at him, tearing up as she looked at how deathly pale his face was. "I'm… I'm s-s-sorry…"

"Shhhh, shhhh," she said, smoothing his cheek and holding back her tears. "Hush now, there's nothing to say sorry for…"

"B-But… But I'm dy-"

"Shhh, no you're not…" Amelia said, mostly trying to convince herself. "We'll find a way to sort you… You have a promise to keep."

Arthur went to say something but started coughing harshly, his throat filled with the blood that was spreading to the worst parts of his body. Amelia flinched slightly, continuing to hold him close but not caring about the blood hitting her – she was more worried that so much was coming out.

She was cursing the entire evening, damning the baron and all of his creations to the pits of hell for doing this to them. Nothing had made her that angry before – not her mother's murder, not her father's abandonment, not her brother's stupidity… The sheer nerve that someone would take people in the dead of night and subject them to such a cruel form of torture made her blood boil. She could feel her grip on Arthur damp and dirty shirt tightening, but never loosened it for fear that it really was his only lifeline. She knew in her heart of hearts that it wasn't, that he was dying in her arms and that there was nothing she could do – but she was grabbing at straws, trying to find any way that would keep Arthur with her.

And that scared her more. The thought that she had grown so attached to someone in such a short space of time and that they were about to leave her made her heart enter her throat and her stomach did flips. What had she really been expecting? For them to make it out of there alive when no other person had ever done so before? For them to run back to the village or flee straight to the airport and make their ways back to England? To be safe and sound and then what? Keep the promises they had made by the fireplace? Be there for each other, support each other in their paths and… and then what?

He would get a girlfriend surely? Or she'd get a boyfriend… Or… Or would they have gotten together? She had no idea what she was thinking – why would someone like him want to be with someone like her? She had nothing to offer him – hell; she was a few years younger than him. He was a famous author – a rising name in the world of literature; he could do anything he wanted, be anyone, and have anyone. His book could become a movie; he could become richer than they could even comprehend.

But that was all being cut short at that moment – his movements were slowly ceasing, his eyelids slipping closed and his breathing becoming so faint that Amelia had to lean closer to him to be able to hear it. It was frightening her – she had experienced death before, but she had never witnessed a person die. She had never held a person so close to her that she could feel the life leaving their body, feel their blood covering her skin so her fading tan was tainted by crimson.

"Arthur…" she said softly, her voice breaking slightly. "Please… I… I am so sorry…" "Don't… D-Don't be… s-stupid…" he replied, his voice barely higher than a whisper. His eyes remained closed but a slight smile came to his white face. "If… If this is… is my… last… breath… I… I'm glad it's… it's with you…"

Squeezing her eyes shut as her tears threatened to escape again, Amelia pressed her forehead down on his again. "Don't say that… You'll be fine…" she said, looking up slightly as she looked at Arthur. He wasn't moving – his entire being was still and calm, red and damp and lifeless. Not responding to the calm voices of Antonio and Lovina, Amelia held Arthur closer, her eyes damp with the tears that had finally escaped. She sobbed hard, her hands gripping against his filthy t-shirt as a lifeline of her own.

She couldn't bare it – the thought that he had just died in her arms was killing her. She hated Gilbert with a passion, vowing that she would end his reign of blood and darkness so no one else would have to go through what they were.

Tentatively, Lovina put her hand on the younger girl's shoulder – staying close to her despite Amelia shrugging her hand away. She could see how much pain she was in, tears dotting in her eyes at the thought that they had lost someone so suddenly. Antonio put his arm around her, holding the Italian girl close as he kept his eyes firmly locked on Amelia and Arthur – he knew that they couldn't stay there for much longer, but there was no use in moving Arthur's body. The monsters would eat him if they left him, but it would hinder their own survival to do so…

"Amelia… We have to go…" he said, watching as she shook her head defiantly. "Another monster could come along at any moment…"

"I don't care…" Amelia said, keeping her eyes tightly closed as she held onto Arthur. "I'm not leaving him… I can't…"

"You may not need to…"

Blinking, the trio looked up at the new voice – Amelia locking eyes with Ava, the Spanish ghost that she and Arthur had run into so many hours previously; the other scientist who had died at the hands of Baron Beilschmidt.

Ava looked around at them all, her eyes lingering on Antonio for a few moments longer than the two girls before floating forwards towards Amelia.

"He's not yet dead…" Ava explained.

"How do you know?" Amelia asked, ignoring the perplexed expressions Antonio was making.

"I'm not on the same plane as you," she said. "I can see the spirits you cannot. Arthur's spirit is still within his body… He has not got much time remaining, but he is still alive."

"What can I do to help him?"

"You already have the tool you need," Ava said, smiling a little. "The phial in your pocket."

Blinking, Amelia pulled out the small glass phial of Laudanum from her pocket – looking it over carefully before giving her attention back to Ava once more. "But this is a pain killer, isn't it? Opium…"

Nodding, Ava smiled a little more. "But I helped devise this particular concoction as part of the trials… It's magic."

"Magic?" blinked Antonio.

"Pour it all into his mouth," Ava instructed. "Trust me. Quickly!"

Not needing to be told twice, Amelia pulled out the dry cork of the phial and tilted Arthur's head back slightly, gently opening his mouth and pouring the purple liquid inside. Closing his mouth once it was all inside, she helped it down his throat and watched – beneath the tear in his shirt, Amelia's eyes widened as she watched the open wound close and disappear as though some invisible force was holding him together and stitching him back up. Colour returned to his skin slowly but he didn't wake.

"What the…" Amelia muttered, looking at the ghost.

"He should wake soon," Ava said. She turned her attention to Antonio finally, smiling a little. "My son created a good line of our family…"

"You're son…" Antonio uttered, looking at Ava closely. "You're my…"

"Great grandmother," Ava smiled. "There are too many 'great's to add so that will do."

Smiling a little, Antonio looked over her appearance before his expression saddened. "You died here…"

"But I stopped Gilbert using the potion," she countered. "He doesn't know what the final ingredients are, that's why he has been stuck in this loop for so long… He will continue to search and experiment, but he will never find the answer, that I am sure. But his damage is continuing and he has enlisted help from the village… I do not know who but they may be able to find the answer for him…"

"We'll get him," Antonio said.

"Have you seen a red haired girl anywhere around here?" Lovina piped up, gaining the ghost's attention. Ava's brows furrowed in thought before she nodded.

"She was in here," she said. "I swear of it, she was on that bed."

"But she's not here…" Lovina sighed. "Do you know where she's gone? Did she wake up and wander off?"

"I'm sorry…" Ava said, looking at the Italian girl with sincere sympathy. "I don't know where she is…"

"That's okay…" Lovina whispered. "Just… please look out for her…"

"I'll do my best," Ava said, fading away.

Amelia looked at the pair above her quietly, watching as Antonio held Lovina close to him, kissing her head and smoothing her hair as she took deep breaths to keep herself calm. She looked down at Arthur though as she felt him shift, watching as he groaned and slowly opened his eyes.

"Amie?" he asked, his voice hoarse. Relief overcame her so suddenly that Amelia burst into tears again, ducking her head down to hide in his hair as Arthur carefully sat up as much as he could and held her. "What happened…? How am I alive…?"

Calming down, Amelia pulled away from him enough to look at him, smiling at him as the tears streamed silently down her face. "I had a potion that helped… Ava, the ghost, she came to us and told me what to do…" Arthur blinked in surprise, but then groaned and held his stomach as he felt a sharp pain shoot through him. "Stop… You're still healing so you have to be careful," Amelia said. "But we have to move you…"

"Let's get to the next floor down and find somewhere out of reach to rest and wash the blood off of the pair of you…" Antonio suggested, motioning to filthy pair. When Amelia nodded her agreement, he moved over and helped her help Arthur onto his feet – taking most of his weight from them both and heading out of the room to the stairs. They wandered down them cautiously, edgy from the unease of not knowing what they would be walking into next – but thankfully they came to another atrium, one that looked as though it had been a play area for the Baron's young son.

It was similar in design to the previous atrium – stone floor, bright clear lighting from large windows and a beautiful fountain, as well as doors that led to further Servant's Quarters – but it was more calming than the other. It didn't feel as ominous as the door wasn't as large and foreboding as the other.

Walking over to the fountain, Antonio helped sit Arthur on the edge before walking off with Lovina to have a look around and make sure that they were totally safe for the time being. Amelia sat beside him, washing her hands and arms in the spray of the fountain as well as letting the water hit her shirt to get rid of most of the blood that had started to stain there. Seeing that he didn't have all that much energy at that moment, Amelia helped Arthur wash his arms too – before looking at his shirt and sighing a little.

"You're going to have to take it off so I can wash that," she said quietly, waiting for him to nod before pulling it over his head and dipping it into the pool of water. She kept glancing at him as he washed away the blood from his torso, looking round completely as Antonio and Lovina returned.

"Servant's Quarters is empty of bodies, monsters or anything that could hurt us," Lovina said. "There are a couple of beds, so I'm going to rest for a bit."

"I'm going to keep watch because I'm not tired," Antonio said. "You should go rest too, Arthur."

"Okay…" Arthur said, accepting Antonio's help in standing and going over to the Servant's Quarters. Lovina looked at Amelia as she stayed at the fountain, tilting her head a little and putting her hand on her arm.

"Aren't you going to rest?" she asked.

"I'm not tired," Amelia said, smiling a little. "I will later though. I just… can't at the moment. I'm too alert."

"Okay, but be careful out here alone, alright?" Lovina said. When Amelia nodded, she turned on her heal and hurried after the guys leaving Amelia alone at the fountain with Arthur's shirt. She sighed softly as she washed the dirty fabric, her hands shaking as she cried quietly into the water.

It was of relief but also of fear. She needed to find another potion like that one just in case any of them were hurt like that again – she didn't want any of them to die…

But at the same time, she was thinking about how certain things didn't add up. Like Feliciana's disappearance. How could she be that hidden from the ghosts, beings that could see all at once and be anywhere at any given time? Unless Gilbert had taken her into the dungeons with Ludwig. He had been heading in that direction it seemed, and if that were the case… he could be nearby at that very moment.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Darkness was falling outside once again, signally the start of their second night within the castle. Red and pinks and oranges were starting to dye the sky in brilliant streaks, though parts were obscured by thin white clouds.

Amelia was still sat by the fountain, her hands wrinkled from dipping in and out of the water for so long as she continued to get the large stain of blood out of Arthur's torn shirt. She had managed to get most of it out with the help of a few rocks and some questionable plants on the back of the fountain, but there were still remnants of the stain visible. It was now partially dry beside a window, the cool air slowly ridding it of the damp.

She looked round when she heard footsteps, blushing a little as a shirtless Arthur walked over to her by himself. He looked rested and healthy again, but there was a fine scar along his stomach from the stab wound. He looked at her curiously as he got over to her, sitting beside her on the fountain.

"Have you been here all this time?" asked Arthur, looking over to his almost-dry-shirt and her pruned hands. "Amie…"

"I was too alert…" Amelia admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "I wouldn't have been able to get to sleep even if I tried…"

"You're an idiot, you know that," Arthur said, smiling a little. Amelia chuckled slightly and nodded.

"I know."

"About what happened earlier…" he continued. "I… I meant what I said in there… I was glad I was with you."

Blushing a little more, Amelia looked him in the eyes – her emotions still on the surface and visible to him in just once glance. "I was so scared…" she whispered. "I thought you were going to die there… in my arms… I didn't know what I was going to do… or why I felt like that…"

"I'm so sorry," Arthur said, shifting closer to her and holding her close to him once more. She hid against his neck as her tears threatened to leak again, her left hand clutching to his bare shoulder. "At least I can keep that promise now, huh?"

"And I can keep mine…" she muttered.

Gently cupping her jaw, Arthur tilted her head up so that he could look into her eyes. "I know it's only been 2 days… and this will seem stupid to anyone else…" he paused and sighed a little. "Oh, how to do this without being cliché… You see this in horror stories and movies… And event taking part over a few hours and the two characters you know will end up together slowly get closer until it happens… It always seems so false and unrealistic… But being in this nightmare really has opened my eyes… You never know your feelings until they're threatened to be taken away from you…"

"Arthur…"

"Yes…"

"Get to the point," Amelia said, smiling a little.

Chuckling a little, Arthur leaned a little closer. "My point is this," he said.

Then kissed her softly on the lips.

_**Notes:**_

**It would have been more surprising if he had died, but there you go XD**

**There wouldn't really have been much more of a story without him!**

**I'll leave you all to react :D**

**Laters~**


	11. Chapter 10

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Ten**

The kiss was short and simple but it held so much emotion that neither really wanted it to end. Arthur's hand gently smoothed against Amelia's jaw, the American fisting her hands against Arthur's bare chest with little other idea of where to put them. There was something pure and clean about the kiss, somehow cleansing the area they were hiding in of the death and decay that centuries of torture and murder had created.

As they pulled apart, the pair locked eyes and simply stared at one another for a time – the silence around them was just a muffled sound, as if more was happening around them that they just couldn't see for a moment. The only thing that mattered was each other and the confession Arthur had just made, and Amelia felt it only fit to return the gesture.

She carefully shifted closer to him, looping her arms around his neck and letting her hands gently card through the hair at the base of his neck – pulling him down slowly and pressing her lips back onto his. This time the kiss came more naturally – they were expecting it, relishing it this time as the situation they were in finally dawned on them once more. Amelia could feel Arthur's cold skin against her bare arms, the one part of her stomach that was exposed brushing against his waist just as cold. Amelia held onto him tightly as the kiss deepened ever so slightly, desperation causing the pair to grasp at each other as though they could be pulled away from each other at any moment.

Slowly, Arthur pulled back from Amelia and looked down at her flushed cheeks and tired eyes. He knew that she wouldn't want to go to sleep by herself in a place like this, and he wasn't too keen on doing so either. Looking around them, Arthur thought that the entire building was far too quiet. Gilbert had gone through their recently, that much they were certain of and yet there was not a single sign of him or any of the monsters nearby. He knew that they had one more set of stairs to make their way down before they could finally enter the basement, but surely there should have been monsters coming after them already.

They had seen the Gatherers fighting in the courtyard beneath the bridge they had crossed not long ago. They were only one floor away from them and yet there was not a single sign of them coming any closer, and that simple fact alone was enough to create a tension between the two as they tried to figure out what was going on.

"We should go rest…" Amelia said, getting up quietly and walking over to the window to retrieve Arthur's shirt for him. Walking back to him, she held it out and watched as the Briton slipped the cold material back onto his torso before putting his arm around her. "Arthur?"

"I'm not leaving your side if I can help it," he said, looking at her seriously. "I'm not letting what happened to me happen to you… And if I were to lose you now…"

"You're not going to lose me," Amelia said, walking over to the Servant's Quarters with him. Arthur held the door open and let her walk inside first, shutting it securely after them and continuing on through the main sleeping area. Looking around the room, Amelia spotted Antonio and Lovina on one of the beds near the far end of the ward – Antonio was awake and keeping watch whilst Lovina slept tucked securely against his side, her head on his chest and her face peaceful for the first time that evening.

The Spaniard smiled at them as they made their ways over to the bed opposite them, watching as they settled down so Amelia was in a similar position to Lovina against Arthur. He knew that Arthur wouldn't be tired after the nap he had had, but Amelia fell asleep as soon as her eyes closed leaving the two guys to keep watch.

"What do you make of this situation?" Arthur asked, setting the lantern Amelia had kept hold of carefully beside the bed and turning it on so there was a soft glow for a while.

Antonio scratched his head and let out a deflated sigh. "You know… I… I don't like this," he said. "Not just the monsters and the death… This thing with Feliciana is bugging me."

"I was hoping you'd picked up on that too," Arthur replied, his eyebrows furrowing as he thought over it. "She was meant to be in that area upstairs. In that last room. Yet there was no sign she'd even been in there."

"True… The first thing I'd do if I'd been alone when I woke up would be to search the room," Antonio said. Arthur nodded in agreement.

"That's exactly what Lovina, Amelia and I did," he explained. "Amelia woke on the top floor in a bedroom, she said. That's where she found the lantern and the oil. Lovina searched the bedroom she was in and found a key before getting attacked by the creature and fleeing to the library where she found us. I woke up in a cupboard and found my way into the living room which I searched and then researched with Amelia when she wandered in. But the room Feliciana was supposed to be in looked untouched. Not even the bed looked like it had been laid in."

"Then what are you suggesting?" asked Antonio, looking at Arthur confusedly. "That she wasn't in there to begin with?"

"Exactly," Arthur replied. "Ava said she'd sensed her there. As did Francis. But they didn't see her. This castle is a hub of magical activity – they could have easily been fed misinformation. And worst case scenario, they lied to us."

"I doubt they'd lie to us," Antonio said, shaking his head. "Ava helped heal you. She's an ancestor of mine. I'd hope she wouldn't try to kill me."

"Then let's go with that misinformation theory for now," Arthur continued. "Why would someone want to give false information about the location of one of the victims?"

Antonio shrugged and opened his mouth to answer, but quickly shut it as the pair heard a noise outside. Arthur's eyes widened as he recognised the sound, quickly shutting off the lantern light much to Antonio's confusion.

Outside the ward door the sound of clanking chains and heavy metal being dragged along the floor could be heard more clearly than Arthur cared to think about, followed by the horribly familiar inhuman screeching of the humanoid monster. Remembering the litel fact that the creature was near enough blind, Arthur shook his head to Antonio to say 'do not make a sound' before motioning to wake Lovina and make her aware before it was too late. After getting a nod of understanding from Antonio, Arthur gently shook Amelia awake, covering her mouth before she could make any noises of protest.

She looked up at him in confusion, her eyebrows raised as she took in the look of fear in his eyes. Furrowing them questioningly, Amelia looked over Arthur's shoulder towards the ward door and froze as the metallic noises finally reached her ears. She glanced over at Antonio and Lovina, the other couple watching the doorway with wide eyes as they tried to remain as silent as possible – unfortunately, the creature started to break its way through the door with its inhuman brute force. Amelia closed her eyes as soon as she heard the wood splinter and shatter into thousands of pieces, hiding against Arthur as the metallic scrapings and screams started to get louder the further the creature got into the room. They daren't not move for fear that anything would trigger the other senses of the creature and alert it to their positions, the guys watching carefully as it walked up the middle aisle of the ward before making its way back to the doorway when it thought that no one was inside.

As soon as it was gone, the quartet let out a silent group sigh of relief. Gathering their lantern and torch quickly and as quietly as they could, they got off the beds and looked at one another to decide what to do next. They couldn't go outside yet… the monster could still be there, but there seemed to be nothing more to that room than just beds and empty dressers.

"Uh… Did anyone check the closet when they came in here…?" Amelia suddenly whispered, looking over Lovina's shoulder to the solitary item stood tall and proudly at the back of the room.

"I did," Lovina said, looking behind her quickly before looking back at Amelia. "But it was totally empty."

"Did you check to see if something was behind it?" Amelia pressed.

Blinking, Lovina shook her head and pushed her brown hair behind her ears out of habit. "No… I didn't look behind it."

"Not necessarily behind it…" Amelia said, walking away from the other and carefully pulling open the both doors of the lone wardrobe. She stepped inside and started tapping around, trying to listen for any sign of hollowness, but got distracted as something caught her eye.

The single hook inside that looked brand new – shiny and clean, like it had recently been cleaned but never used for any of the servant's clothes. Cautiously, she reached for it and pulled – getting a surprise as the base of the wardrobe slid out from beneath her to reveal a long gaping hole.

"Amelia!" the others yelped as the girl screamed and fell into the hole, hurrying over and looking inside as she was lost into the darkness. Looking at the other pair, Arthur moved to the hole and sat so his legs dangled inside.

"I'm going after her," he said, glancing behind him as he heard quick chains speeding back towards them. "You may want to join us and close the doors…" he added before dropping down into the hole himself with them close on his tail. They yelled as they fell faster and faster through what seemed like never ending darkness, their voices echoing around them against the damp stones of the castle walls, groaning slightly as they landed at awkward angles in what seemed like a large stone tunnel slide.

It continued for what seemed like an eternity before they finally saw light near the end of the tunnel and landed with a splash in a dark open space. Shaking their heads and wiping their eyes clear of the water, the trio looked around and saw Amelia perched up on a large box – she was soaked through and looked as though she had a fresh wound on her leg.

Her eyes were wide as she watched them, her voice seemingly caught in her through with fear. Arthur started to wade through the water towards her, blinking as something started to speed towards them at a great speed. He gasped and managed to pull himself up onto the box with Amelia, looking over at Antonio and Lovina as they reached a box on the other side of the room.

"Amelia, are you okay?" asked Arthur, turning his attention to the wounded girl beside him. Shaking, she nodded and hugged close to him as the shock wracked through her body. Arthur held her close and kissed her damp hair softly, looking to the centre of the room as the water monster started to swim around in search of them or anything to eat.

"I'm s-sorry," Amelia stuttered, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. Arthur shook his head and smiled at her softly.

"We're okay," he said. "We've just got a big fish on our hands now."

"Guys, I think we're actually in the basement now," Lovina called over to them. "But it's been flooded… Ludwig can't be in here, he'd have drowned if he was unconscious!"

"Unless there is another section to this castle's basement?" suggested Antonio. "It wouldn't surprise me."

"We have to figure out a way past that monster," Lovina pointed out.

"There's… There's a body on that box over there," Amelia said, pointing near them. Lovina looked round and screamed slightly as she spotted the corpse on the box near her and Antonio – the body was mutilated and chopped at each limb, piled up as legs, arms and torso; the head and feet were nowhere to be found. "We can use them to lure the monster away so we can get through that door over there… But we need to fix my leg first…"

Arthur blinked and looked down at the girl's leg, finally taking into account the blood and teeth marks in her calf. He knew that the blood would attract the monster away from the body parts as soon as it hit the water, so looked around for anything they could use on her leg.

"Arthur… If I have to stay here, that's okay…" Amelia said quietly. Arthur didn't like the solemn tone to her voice. "It's okay…"

"No," he said defiantly. "No it's not! I'm getting you out of here and that's a promise! I just have to find a way how…"

_**Notes:**_

**Ah, another chapter done!**

**Not sure how much longer this is going to be going on for seeing as they really are in the basement now, but we shall soon see!**

**Love ya guys!**


	12. Chapter 11

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Eleven**

Looking at Arthur pleadingly, Amelia knew that it would be no good to try and reason with him in this situation. As much as she wanted him to just leave her behind and live his life, she knew that he would want to keep the promise that he made to her. She was frightened for them all – herself sat on that box bleeding, Arthur refusing to move to the next room just to stay and try to save her, and Lovina and Antonio sat on a box on the other side of the room waiting for them to move with them. They were all in more danger than ever before just because she made one stupid little mistake.

Yes, they had gotten that much closer to the ground because of it – but she was hurt and with people who had seemed to have bonded with her so much they were refusing to move on without her. She wanted them to run, use the body parts on the other side of the room to lure the water monster away from them as they were supposed to and get out of there alive.

"Arthur, please…" she muttered, holding his hand tightly as her eyes watered against her will. "I don't want you to get hurt because of me… I can't let you stay here with me…"

"I can't leave you behind," Arthur replied, looking back at her as he took hold of both her hands and pressed his lips to them. "I promised you that we would get out of here together and I intend to keep that promise. You are not staying her by yourself. All we have to do is find something to stop the bleeding or just holding it back for the time being. You can walk right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then there's no other problem other than the blood!" Arthur said, looking at her seriously. "We can't let a little blood hold us back now. Hell, we got through a fucking stab wound okay."

"Because I had that potion and got told how to use it," Amelia said. "We haven't got any of that anymore."

"Uh, guys," said Antonio from the other side of the room. The Anglo-American pair looked over to him and Lovina. "There is a unit right there," he said, pointing over. "I could check in that if I climb over the boxes. Random shit is everywhere in this place and it might just hold what we need."

"Good idea," Arthur said.

"No!" Amelia yelped. "Don't you dare! If you fall in and get hurt by that monster because of me…"

"Amelia, shut up!" Lovina shouted, looking at the younger girl earnestly. "This self-sacrifice vibe you have going on isn't going to help any of us! Just let us work as a team to get _all_ of us out of here. Including you! We can do this so just stop! Okay?"

"…Okay…" muttered Amelia after a long pause. She leant against Arthur as the Brit put his arm around her, refusing to watch as Antonio clambered from box to box until he got over to the unit. She could hear him rustling about – glass clinking together as jars were moved and the scraping of small wooden boxes being shifted.

"Aha!" exclaimed the Spaniard, climbing back onto the box Lovina had remained on. Amelia looked over and smiled at the bright smile on his face and 2 small purple phials in his hand. "There were 2 of those Laudanum potions over there! Two!"

"Chuck us one over!" Arthur said, cupping his hands and catching one of the phials as Antonio through it. He looked over it and found it was indeed identical to the phial that Amelia had found what seemed like days earlier. He opened it and sniffed it slightly before passing it to Amelia. "I don't think you'll need a lot."

Amelia nodded and took a small sip of the potion, blinking as she felt a tingling in her leg. Looking at her exposed calf, she smiled as the wound knitted itself together again as though some invisible doctor was stitching the skin. Grinning at the others apologetically, she sighed a little. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Arthur said, kissing her cheek softly. He looked to Antonio and Lovina and pointed at the body parts. "Throw them over by the drop. The further away that thing is from the door the more chance we'll have of getting through and shutting it before it realises there's live prey in the water."

"Okay," Lovina said, leaning over and taking the arm and the leg tentatively. "Urgh… They're so cold…"

"This is so gross…" Antonio groaned, heaving the torso up onto the box with them. Shifting nearer the other end of it, he lifted the torso and threw it as hard as he could – it splashed into the water near the dropping point, the monster screeching and swimming towards it. Lovina threw the arms and legs, watching as the monster started to thrash around in excitement. Giving it but a moment to make sure it was totally distracted, the group jumped off of the boxes and started to wade their way through the water towards the door as quickly as they could. They could still hear the monster thrashing around as the got into the other room, Arthur and Antonio shutting the door and looking around them. The water was at their hips still, but they had entered a large room with another door near the end of the corridor.

Though the room was dark, there was enough light from the lantern as Arthur turned it on again to let them see that they were in large schooling area. There was a chalkboard on the wall and bookshelves had toppled over due to the flood waters and anything else that had passed through their over the centuries. There was a large desk for a teacher and a smaller one for a child.

"Lukas must have been tutored in this room," Arthur said, looking around. "It's not on any of the layouts that I've seen though."

"You know how this place is planned out?" asked Lovina, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"I'm writing a book on the story of this place remember?" Arthur sighed. "I had to do studies on the layout of this place and the legend to get an understanding for my book. This is too far east of anything that I saw on the map back in the Inn. It's not marked. Meaning we have to get out of here. It's definitely the basement, so if we just keep following this path we should be heading west back into the main section."

"And to where Ludwig should be, right?" Antonio said. "Francis said Ludwig was in the cells area the last he checked."

"And beyond that is the inner sanctum where Gilbert should be," Arthur nodded. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can put an end to this and go home…"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Amelia said, making her way through the water to the door. The others followed behind her, wading through until they reached the feeble looking structure and pulling it open.

But, in that split second, the door they had just left burst opened – the screeching of the water monster reached their ears, causing them to turn and see the spray in the water of it speeding towards them.

Yelling and screaming, they ran through and shut the door behind them, hurrying along another long flooded corridor. They could hear the other door being broken door, pushing floating objects out of their way and into the path of the oncoming monster. Their hearts were beating hard in their chests as they tried to make their way away from the creature – Amelia could feel the sweat starting to form on her skin, though she wasn't too sure if it was perspiration or the flood waters that were creating so much trouble for them. The creature was definitely getting closer to them, but in the distance they could see a door. One with a lever beside it.

"We have to get that door opened quickly!" Arthur shouted.

"That monster will get us, though!" Lovina replied.

They got to the lever and pulled it down as quickly as they could, watching as the door slowly opened. Pushing the girls forward first, the guys watched as they managed to squeeze through the slowly increasing gap. The monster was getting closer so Antonio pushed Arthur forwards, the Brit being the smaller of the two. Antonio managed to squeeze through just in time before he and Arthur threw both their weights onto the door to shut it again before the creature slammed itself against the other side. It was a tough task thanks to the water that had started to make its way through to the other side, but they were safer now.

Arthur looked round as he heard a thud, hurrying over to Amelia as she collapsed down onto the floor. She was slumped against the wall, soaking wet and shivering. He put his hand on her arm gently, watching as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"We're okay?" she muttered, her tone asking for reassurance.

"We're okay," Arthur replied, holding her close as she moved forwards and hid against his neck. He looked at Lovina and Antonio, watching as they too embraced as the relief of getting out of that area washed over them. Pressing a kiss to Amelia's head, he helped her to her feet and kept his arm around her.

Silently, the group walked forwards and around the first corner they came too, blinking as they were presented with the sight of a lengthy corridor filled with cells. They had arrived at the very end of the dungeons, all of them now nervous about what they were about to do. Walking along the corridor, they looked in each and every cell – gaging occasionally as they spotted mutilated bodies and puddles of blood. As they reached the end of the corridor, a deep unease had settled over them.

"Where is Ludwig then?" Lovina questioned. "He's meant to be there, right? He's not there, Feliciana is not there. So where are they?"

"I'm sure we'll find them soon…" Antonio said, though he didn't look certain.

"You said that earlier," Lovina said. "And look…"

"I know," he replied. "Let's just keep moving…"

Leaving the dungeons, they looked around the area around them – there were stairs leading upwards and two doors, one marked _Lagerung_ and the other marked _Laboratorium_.

"That's the lab and the other is the storage room," Amelia said, pointing out each one. "I say we check the storage first cos we might find something useful."

"Agreed," Arthur said, making his way over to the door of the storage. He pushed it open carefully, peeking inside and using the lantern to look around. After being given a tinderbox, Antonio lit up a lantern and took it down from the wall – their over one having been discarded in the fall.

The room was filled with long racks; each was four shelves high but nearly reaching the ceiling. Some were bare, but others held weird jars or boxes, chests with random papers that were browning and faded with age.

"Oh wow!" came Antonio's voice at the far end of the fifth row of shelves. Moving round to where he was, the others blinked at the chest he had pulled out onto the floor and opened. It was full of weapons – in Antonio's hand was a sharp, shiny axe, but in the chest were swords, maces and knives. Arthur reached down and picked up a blade and turned it over in his hands, grinning.

"This could come in handy," he said. Amelia nodded and picked up a mace, shifting so Lovina could get a couple of knives. Armed, they made their way out of the storage room and over to the laboratory. Holding his sword up in defence, Arthur opened the door and stepped inside – looking around at all the equipment, tubes and liquids. He jumped back though as he saw skeleton on the floor though, one in a red dress. It still had some skin on it and hair – and it was obvious who it was.

"Ava…" Antonio muttered. "This is where she was left? Just lying there on the ground…?"

Jumping slightly, they all looked to the end of the room as a door slowly opened – but no one came out. Glancing at the others, Arthur stepped forwards and walked through – the group following after him, their eyes widening at the sight before them.

A large room with an alter in the centre on a grand platform surrounded by candles. Pillars reaching from floor to ceiling circled the room too. But the alter was where the group were focused, only barely hearing the door shut behind them.

Gilbert was stood with a smirk on his face, dressed in his old clothing but looking no more than 26 years old.

But by his side…

"Ludwig… Feliciana…" Lovina said, her eyes wide and filled with confusion. The pair looked down at them, smirks forming on their faces too.

"Hello, Sorella," said Feliciana. "I bet you didn't see this coming."

_**Notes:**_

**From past reviews, I think Feli's statement applies to you guys too :D**

**I'll just leave you with this and…**

***flees into the sunset***


	13. Chapter 12

**Unsterblich**

**Chapter Twelve**

A silence rung through the room, a hollowness louder than any noise they had come across the entire time that they had been in the castle. Nothing could compare to the sick churning that they had all started to feel in their stomachs – it was as though the whole fabric of reality had been torn in two and thrown at them at super speed.

Lovina stepped forwards, her eyes wide and her hands balled into fists so tightly they could see her hands turning white. Her arms were shaking with bottle up emotions – so many that it was hard to decipher what was driving her at that moment; was it the anger, the betrayal, or the hurt. Or deep down, was it really the relief that her sister was stood before her and not harmed in any way that she could see. The knife in one of her fists got pointed at them, her teeth gritted as she tried to calmly form what it was she wanted to say.

"You…" she hissed, tears threatening to leak from her eyes. "You were involved in this this whole time?! How could you betray me like this, Feli? I'm your fucking sister, for Christ's sake! Doesn't that mean a single God damned thing to you?!"

"Lovi…" Antonio said, stepping up behind her but keeping his eyes locked on the smirking German's. Something still didn't add up for him, but he just couldn't quite pick out what it was.

Feliciana smirked down at her older sister, her arms folded beneath her chest and a superior look in her eyes. It was an expression that almost broke Lovina's heart as she had never seen that look on her baby sister's face before. She thought she had known her, they had grown up together, she had protected her when times had gotten tough and tried to do her best by her. She had thought that her little sister was the sweetest girl in the world – willing to do anything to defend herself, but really only interested in the things that she loved and anything that would bring a smile to a person's face. She remembered all the times that she would bring her food when she was busy with school work, all the paintings she created just to pass the time… How the younger had cried into her shoulder when their mother and father had passed away and they had to go live with their grandfather when they were children…

"You really do seem surprised," Feliciana commented, tilting her head as she observed her older sister like a child outside a tank at an aquarium. Lovina glared up at her and shook her head.

"Don't even fucking do that," she spat.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Feliciana smiled. "I'm not Feliciana."

"And I'm not Ludwig," added the blonde German.

Amelia and Arthur blinked in surprise, as did Lovina and Antonio, the quartet looking at the auburn haired girl as she laughed at their perplexed face and grinned at Gilbert. The white haired man stepped forwards again, smirking more broadly than he had before.

"I guess we owe you an explanation for all this," he sneered. "I died that day. Immortality is hopeless dream. I learnt that on the day of that explosion and in all honesty I would have thought you'd have figured out what is really going on by now.

"You see, Ludwig has an older brother. One identical to myself way back then. His name was Gilbert too and over the years I had learnt some pretty good tricks. He was the first, you see.

"After I learnt more and more about the world and the supernatural elements that I had thrown myself into, I found a particularly interesting book. One I doubt you found in the library. I never keep them in there, only where I feel most secure. It was filled with information beyond anyone's wildest nightmares – entries about creatures of the night, spells and tools that could be used against them… and I learnt all about a nice little tool called summoning. All I had to do was stand there and chant a few lines in Latin and the spirit of whomever I want would return to me.

"Four months ago, I tried it on Ludwig. I returned to the inn where he was very surprised to see his older brother but welcomed me nonetheless. I chanted the ritual and low and behold it worked. My son returned to my side – fully grown but without a true form. So he did as I did, and possessed him. Since that day, he had been helping me with difficult task of getting people into the castle. There was no reasoning behind it, in truth. There was no plan to create the best potion anymore – just a chance to feed the Gatherers and watch as people tried to outsmart me in any way that they could.

"But then you all showed up and I found my best game yet. The writer looking for his next best seller – a man with a history almost as dark as his stories; the student trying to escape – maternal issues and trust issues thrown into one pathetic little child; the model trying to hide her true nature – a girl with more talent with a blade than the average glamour girl; and the photographer in love – a young man sent to watch over the model but ended up falling for her in the process. When I learnt of your coming, I knew that my work would be cut out for me…

"We had to take all of you to keep you from catching on to our plans. But Feliciana was a stroke of luck that I never thought of. She was in that bedroom at first, lying in wait for someone to come along and find her, but then I got an idea… Why not try a possession one more time?"

"So… you 3… Ludwig… his brother Gilbert… and Feliciana…" Amelia said. "You're Lukas, the Baron and… Maria… Ghosts possessing humans… Oh why didn't we see this earlier?! Ludwig… or Lukas… was who you were writing to in the village all that time! Ava and Francis are ghosts! You did know about them!"

"You really are incredibly bright," Feliciana observed.

"I did, yes," Gilbert said. "I knew of them but did nothing as it made the games ever more thrilling. Knowing that there were guides available and yet these people still died was amusing at best. And now I have my family back to enjoy this with me.I have waited a long time to be reunited with my son and my wife, and you are not going to take this away from me now."

"Shame," Lovina snarled. "Cos I'm getting my sister back whether you like it or not! YOU CAN'T POSSESS THESE PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE YOUR LIVES WERE CUT SHORT!"

"And how are you going to stop us?" Ludwig said, jumping down from the platform. He started to walk over to them threateningly, but Lovina stood her ground and glared at him.

"Just fucking watch me…" she said. She glanced at Amelia and Arthur in a way that said 'stand back you have some thinking to do' before guarding herself as Ludwig attacked. Watching as she and Antonio thought (Gilbert having jumped down and unsheathed a sword from his belt to join in), Amelia and Arthur hurried to the sides where Arthur grabbed Amelia's shoulders and looked at her with bright understanding eyes.

"The book," he said. "With the spells he mentioned! He was secure here, was he not? That must mean that the book is in this room somewhere! And if we find it and get to the right spell…"

"…We could exorcize those bastards straight to hell…" Amelia finished. "But where in this room could it be?"

"We have to look. And fast," Arthur said. He stood up and turned but yelped and raised his sword quickly as a fast swipe was aimed in his direction. The clashing of metal created a sharp crashing noise and sent sparks flying at the sheer force of the blow – Arthur holding his ground and glaring up into Gilbert's deep red eyes. Screaming slightly, Amelia looked round at the trio of fights going on all around her – Antonio was battling against Ludwig, Lovina was painfully fighting Feliciana and now Gilbert had chosen to take on Arthur.

That meant that they were all distracted.

Thinking fast, Amelia ran over to the platform where the trio had been stood when they had entered the room, hauling herself up on top of it and gazing around the room for any sign of books in the area. Arthur was right; this place was definitely where the Baron had felt most secure – it seemed more like a giant study than the one they had entered before they had found Antonio. There was even a bed at the end of the walkway of the platform, with a bedside table… which had a cabinet secured with a padlock.

Wasting no more time, she ran to the end of the platform and started to look for a key to remove the padlock. Her breath was coming out in frantic pants as she tried to block the noise of her friend's fighting for their lives from her senses, knowing that she had to keep a cool head to be able to pull this off. Running her fingers through her hair, she smiled a little as the tips brushed gently against one of the hair grips that she always wore. She had done it before – that was how she had gotten into Matthew's room when she had gone to visit him at university the day she had caught him smoking pot. She had had to pick the lock to be able to get inside when her brother never answered but noises could be heard inside. She just hoped it would work again.

Moving over to the lock, she glanced behind her for a second to make sure that everything was 'okay' before setting to work on the device. It was tricky and a lot more work than she had anticipated, and for a moment she thought that it wouldn't work – but soon she felt the weight of the lock shift in her hands, the bar popping open so that she could pull it away and open the cabinet.

The book she found inside was bound in a dark leather material and looked very old but well maintained. She carefully pulled it out from its hiding place and opened it, her eyes widening as she flicked through it and saw articles on creatures she wouldn't have ever known about and spells and potions that sounded like they should have been in a horror novel.

But then she found what she was looking for… Exorcisms…

_Exorcisms are presented as having two parts: the first expels the spirit from the occupied vessel and the second sends it into the afterlife – whether that be heaven or hell depends on the type of spirit you are dealing with. The second part is not mandatory, and it is possible for it to be interrupted to allow the spirit to escape and possess another person. The spell must be read in Latin – both English and Latin translations are bellow._

Reading and re-reading the spell in her head, Amelia got to her feet and ran back to the front of the platform, making sure she didn't lose the page she needed.

"HEY!" she shouted, glaring at the trio of evil as they stopped and looked up at her in surprise. "It's time for you to go back to hell!"

His eyes widening in realisation, Gilbert turned away from Arthur and yelled, "THE BOOK!" before starting to make his way towards her.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica," chanted Amelia, standing her ground and glancing up as the trio paused in the tracks and convulsed. "Ergo, draco maledicte. Ecclesiam tuam securi tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos!"

Jumping back as the trio cried out in agony, the group watched as the spirits left their bodies and sunk into the ground – the hosts falling to the ground unconscious. Amelia breathed deeply and looked around at the others, taking in their wounds; Antonio had a bruise on his cheek bone and various other bruises over his arms, Lovina had a cut on her arm and her cheek and Arthur had a slight cut on his side and on his arms.

"Feli!" cried Lovina, rushing to her sister's side. She rolled her over and pressed her fingers to the pulse point on her neck, letting out a sigh of relief as she felt the steady heartbeat. But that was when they heard a rumbling growl deep within the castle…

"Gilbert was controlling those beasts…" Arthur said, drawing his sword as he looked to the door. "They're free…"

"What do we do?" asked Antonio.

"You and I are going to move Ludwig and Gilbert," Arthur replied. "Lovina, you take Feliciana, and Amelia you look for a way to destroy this castle and send it crashing down on those fugly creatures."

"On it!" Amelia said, starting to flick through the book as she followed her friends out of the dungeon. Lovina pulled the bolt from the lock and let them back out into the laboratory, wasting no time in carrying her sister out into the main cellar to go to the stairs. Amelia stayed behind for a second, looking from the book to a torch on the wall. Feeling around, she still had many pots of oil and there were more on the walls. She grinned as an idea came to her. "Guys, take them out of the castle quickly but then come back in! We're gonna light this fucker up big time."

"What do you mean?" Antonio asked.

"We have an arsenal of volatile chemicals at our disposal!" grinned Amelia. "Plus lantern oil which is designed to burn! Everything is balanced on the main atrium. Everything connects! One big bit burns and dies, the rest will follow!"

"That's the best plan I've heard in days!" Lovina shouted, dragging her sister up the stairs. Keeping hold of the book, Amelia went to help her and the guys get the unconscious portion of the group out onto the grass outside the front of the castle before they ran back down to the basement and collected as many chemicals and oil jars as they could carry.

"Make sure to spread it around," Amelia said. "We need to cover as much as we can!"

Following her lead, the group threw the jars down onto the floor in various places making their way to the door again. Amelia took the lit lantern once more and took a deep breath before throwing it to the centre of the room and making sure the glass smashed and the flames touched the chemicals.

Screaming slightly, she and the others ran from the building as the combustible mixture lit up the area in a sudden rush of heat. Taking only a moment to look back and see how much damage had been caused before fleeing back to the village.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

3 months had passed since the incident in Königsberg, and the four who had not been possessed were never the same after.

Once they had reached the village one more, they got into the inn which had been left untouched by the townsfolk. Bags were packed within the hour and during that time, Ludwig, Feliciana and Gilbert had all awakened with no memory of what had happened to them. After many questions were asked from both parties, it was agreed that they would all be leaving the country and returning/moving to the UK…

Everything went through the right sources correctly and soon they were all settled in a small area in London. But only the four who had not been possessed knew that Amelia had taken the book…

3 months later on the exact day of the incident, Arthur was sat in the living room of the small apartment which he now shared with Amelia. He sipped his tea and looked around as she came in from the front door having just let Antonio and Lovina inside. They often met up there to talk and try to pretend that everything was normal, but that day was different.

"There is no way we can keep on pretending like we don't know those things are out there…" Amelia said, sitting down with the book on her lap. "There are creatures all over this planet… Ghosts, demons, wendigos… All of them out to hurt the innocent."

"She's right," Lovina said. "We can do something about it… It's not like we haven't all been researching this stuff more since that day… I may not let Feli know anything, but I have looked and learnt…"

"Then there was those notes we were sent…" Antonio said, pulling a scrap of paper out of his pocked. The others pulled out identical pieces and sighed. "They say they know what happened to us, what we're capable of and that they need help…"

"What are we going to do then?" asked Amelia, looking between them.

Arthur looked at the note in his hands before smiling at the others. "We're going to help them," he said. "We're going to hunt down as many evil sons of bitches as we can."

_**Notes:**_

_**And that is a very odd end to our story.**_

_**I hope you guys see what I did there. I paved the way and connected to another AU :D**_

_**(The spell is from Supernatural…)**_

_**I don't know when it will be but I am planning for the sequel to this story to be a kind of Supernatural AU so look out for more soon! In the meantime, go check out my other stories and have a nice day!**_


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